Cyber Liability Insurance: Combating New Threats in the Digital Age

2024-10-31
By: Advocate Brokerage

Cyber-attacks are nothing new, but they have become increasingly sophisticated as the years go by. With the advent of artificial intelligence, online criminals now have more tools than ever at their disposal.

Today, we offer a brief rundown of the types of threats that cyber liability insurance can help to safeguard you against.

Phishing

Phishing is a social engineering attack in which criminals send deceptive correspondence, such as emails, text messages, or instant messages, to trick unsuspecting individuals into revealing sensitive information. A phishing scheme may also involve malicious links.

Ransomware

Ransomware is a form of malware that encrypts files to make them Inaccessible until a ransom is paid. This might be in the form of cash, gift cards, or, increasingly more common, cryptocurrency.

Distributed Denial of Service

A distributed denial of service, or DDOS, attack is essentially where cyber criminals overwhelm a business’s website so that legitimate users can’t get through.

Keeping Your Business Safe

While there is no guarantee that any steps you take will keep your business fully untouched from cyber criminals, there are things that you can do to reduce the proverbial target on your back. These include:

Look to the future. Perhaps the single most important thing any organization can do to keep themselves from becoming a victim is to have a response plan. Knowing what you will do ahead of time is crucial in these emergency moments.
Have backups in place. Work with your IT team to confirm that your systems, software, and databases are backed up 100% of the time. This backup should be on a different server than the originals. Ideally, using a secure cloud storage service.
Implement strong security measures. Strong security measures, such as requiring complex passwords, multi-factor authentication, and data encryption, can protect your important data.
Train your employees. Offer security awareness training that includes online safety, how to report suspicious activity, and phishing simulations that test your employees’ abilities to recognize and avoid fraudulent correspondence.