There has been a fast-growing market in the Cyber Insurance niche. If you are like most business owners, you have been contacted by your insurance company to add this policy on. In fact, you may have already bought into it.

Because there are so many cybercriminals, attacks, and compromises there has been an increase in demand. Sadly, the cost of a compromise to small businesses can put them out of business where they cease to exist.

Some things to consider about cyber insurance:

Know Your Risk

Every business with Internet access is at risk from cyber criminals. In today’s world nearly every business has some type of cloud service and digital data – Even if it is just your banking. Consider what you have online; company information, employee information, customer information? What would it cost you if all of your digital assets were gone, stolen by a malicious party, or exposed? Do you take credit cards? Do you store information about your employees or customers that is considered confidential? Do you have Intellectual Property? Do you have enough in savings to recover from an incident or afford a ransom buy-out or legal action?

You can better evaluate your risk by using a framework such the NIST Cybersecurity Framework. Following this framework will not only help you evaluate your risk, but also protect yourself from them, detect them, respond, and recover from them.

Know Your Obligations

There has been a growing trend where vendors, customers, and partnerships are auditing their supply chain to ensure everyone has the security in place to meet their standards. After the Colonial Pipeline shutdown due to Ransomware, the President put in an executive order, whereas all government contractors are required to follow NIST and maintain a certain level of security and transparency. As cybercriminals continue to increase their attacks, which are getting more sophisticated, maintaining a certain standard of cyber security will be a requirement in the future no matter the business size or industry, just like locks on doors are today.

Evaluate & Understand Options

There are a lot of different policies and companies you may be able to work with. Be sure you understand what is covered and more importantly, what is NOT covered. Be sure to read the fine print. Know what requirements there are in order for you to receive a payout.

There can be a lot of technical terms or jargon that may not always make sense. Talk to an IT professional to help you make your way through it all.

Bottom line is, Yes, small businesses need cyber insurance. We are used to paying premiums to protect our companies and livelihoods. This is just an additional insurance policy for your business as we all move towards a digital age.