Technology Firm Cyber Security Incident Response Planning

dataprotectionAre you as prepared as you think?

There’s no question that technology firms of all sizes face a significant threat from information security breaches.

Cyber-attacks have become more commonplace and more sophisticated with each passing year.

According to a January 2014 Lancope/Ponemon Research report, there are a variety of challenges that today’s organizations have to deal with, including:

  • malware campaigns launched by organized criminal groups who look to steal information that can be sold on the black market,
  • increasingly powerful distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks that can take out large websites,
  • state-sponsored espionage that can penetrate even well-defended networks.

Technology firms need to be prepared to respond when these incidents happen.

Cyber/data breach insurance offers tech companies the ability to plan ahead for the insurance claims that can happen today or tomorrow due to a data breach and/or cyber attack.

Not only do tech companies have to be concerned about external cyber attacks, there’s always the possibility of a programming or coding flaw that could internally cause a data breach.  In such a case, it is important for a tech company to ensure that they have insurance coverage that covers errors and omissions as well as external incidents.

A knowledgeable cyber insurance broker that specializes in cyber risks should be consulted when exploring cyber/data breach/errors and omissions insurance coverage for your technology company.

Technology Firms Should Explore Cyber Insurance with Business Interruption Income

According to the Willis Fortune 1000 Cyber Disclosure Report, the top three cyber risks identified by the Fortune 1,000 include:

  1. privacy/loss of confidential data,
  2. reputation risk, and
  3. malicious acts.

The report showed that  health care is the industry most concerned about cyber risks, closely followed by the technology, insurance, telecom and retail sectors.

The most significant cyber exposures identified in the report by Willis included:

1) A rise in the exposure to business interruption as a result of a cyber event.
2) A reduction in the perceived exposure to cyber terrorism.
3) A reduction of intellectual property risks identified.

Other reported cyber exposures included (from high to low risk):

  • Privacy/loss of confidential data
  • Reputation risk
  • Malicious acts
  • Liability
  • Business Interruption
  • Errors and malfunction
  • Cyber terrorism
  • Cyber regulatory risk
  • Outsourced vendor risk
  • Loss of intellectual property
  • Product or service failure
  • Social media risk
  • Actual cyber events

How prepared is your technology firm when it comes to responding to the above cyber risks?   Cyber/data breach insurance can help technology firms respond to these types of risks and can also offer business interruption income as a result of a cyber event. However, its important to note that business interruption is an add-on coverage and is fast becoming an important and necessary coverage for tech firms.  To learn more, contact us.