Cyber and Privacy

Breaking news such as the massive data breach at Experian or Target now seems common. Leaving aside the victims of actual fraud, I hear constantly from people who’ve had to swap out every debit and credit card, or whose cards were unilaterally replaced by their bank. This causes all sorts of problems.

Tech firms face multiple perils in addition to cyber risks.

Read more at RiskandInsurance.com

Selling Cyber Products Requires a Sharp Eye For Ever-Changing Details.

While carefully examining a cyber insurance policy, John Ahmuty, a broker for Swett & Crawford, uncovered a confusing requirement for coverage to be effective. According to the policy, the insured’s security software had to be the “most up to date.”

Read more at LeadersEdgeMagazine.com

Most businesses that store customer data have an exposure to privacy liability. Cyber and privacy liability are now a necessity and should be a key component within the overall insurance portfolio for each client. Catch up with security risks and guard your clients against attacks.

Cyber and privacy liability or data breach coverage can be compared to any new, innovative tech product that lands on retail store shelves these days. Initially, the gadget is costly and unequipped with many of the enhancements made to the later models. Then, as time progresses, it gets refined and affordable.

Read more at PropertyCasualty360.com

Within a cyber insurance industry niche chock full of inherent underwriting challenges is a fast-developing, controversial use of the virtual world.

Cryptographic digital currency—most commonly referred to as Bitcoin since it is the world’s largest form of this currency—is gaining legitimacy. Late last year former Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke told the Senate digital currencies “may hold long-term promise.”

Read more at CyberRiskNetwork.com

More and more, data breaches are making mainstream headlines—from the massive breach at Target potentially affecting a third of the American population to the release of hundreds of thousands of personally identifiable information records from institutes of higher learning.

The cyber market is buzzing, with reports of increases in submissions for cyber coverage.

Read more at CyberRiskNetwork.com

No company is safe these days from a cyberattack. And that’s good news for the insurance business.

Increasingly companies are trying to hedge costs associated with attacks on their networks by purchasing cyber insurance. Not only are more start-ups and established insurance providers getting into the cyber insurance business, but more companies including mom and pops are paying for insurance against cybercriminals.

Read more at CNBC.com

With experts predicting losses of nearly $10 billion for this year alone incidents of credit card fraud and related costs are on the rise.

These growing costs have prompted the credit card industry to reduce in-person counterfeit credit and debit card fraud by implementing CHIP or EMV (EuroPay, MasterCard and Visa) technology.

In addition to enhanced consumer protections, the introduction of CHIP/EMV technology protects the industry from a pending shift in the payment networks’ liability framework, which affects who is responsible for compensation costs for in-person fraudulent credit card transactions.

Read more at Insurance Market Source

What you think you know (but don’t) about data privacy.

Myth: Data thieves only go after big, well-known companies; we are too small to be at risk.

Truth: Breaches happen every day at companies of all sizes, though most go unreported. In May 2008, thieves hacked into the wireless network of a Portsmouth, R.I. coffee shop and began stealing credit and debit card numbers from customers’ computers. When the theft was finally discovered four months later, thieves had run up more than $50,000 in unauthorized credit card charges from about 50 customer accounts.

Read more at Insurance Market Source

The Affordable Care Act has already changed the healthcare landscape significantly, but opportunities for property/casualty agents abound.

For insurance agents, the Affordable Care Act is more than just a game-changer. It is a major shift in the industry landscape, and the resulting tremors are offering changes as well as challenges particularly for those agents with a property/casualty focus.

Read more at Insurance Business America

Professionals who don’t have comprehensive professional liability coverage are leaving themselves exposed to all kinds of potentially devastating risks – from lawsuits to data breaches.

Let’s face it – nobody’s perfect. Even the most experienced professionals make mistakes from time to time. And in our litigious society, even when your service delivery is flawless, a client could still seek legal action against you. That’s where professional liability insurance comes into play.

Read more at Insurance Business America

Between 2008 and 2010, inadequate security procedures at Wyndham Worldwide led to the compromise of more than 500,000 payment card accounts. Last December, Target announced that hackers had stolen credit and debit card information for 70 million customers.

Read more at Insight + Analysis for the Independent Agent

There’s no denying that cyber insurance has become an almost ubiquitous industry buzzword in the independent agency sector. However, a recent report from Marsh & McLennan reveals that employers are changing their buying habits, with more businesses transforming from window shopper into policyholder.

Given ongoing high-profile cyber breaches on several fronts, cyber coverage is the hottest coverage in today’s excess and surplus lines market.

The attackers struck unexpectedly and with devastating results. Earlier this year terrorists disabled the electronic shut-off systems on the furnaces at a steel mill in Germany, shutting down the facility and causing massive damage to a furnace that could not be properly turned off.

Despite all the publicity generated by cybersecurity breaches last year at Target, Sony, Goodwill, UPS and other companies, along with the massive breach disclosed this year at the U.S. government’s Office of Personnel Management involving 21 million current and former federal employees, too many companies remain ignorant of the risk, local insurance and legal experts say.

Neiman Marcus Group LLC is back in court over a 2013 cyberattack, as a U.S. appeals court reinstated on Monday a case that had been dismissed last year. The reversal highlights the complicated legal issues companies confront when customer data is breached, including questions concerning the degree to which customers can hold companies, and their executives, liable.

Most business entities have digital content stored on email systems, websites, laptops, cell phones or computer networks. This content is vulnerable to damage by viruses, hackers, identify thieves, employee saboteurs and cyber terrorists. Damage to electronic data can disrupt a firm’s business operations, creating income losses and generating extra expenses. Data losses that involve sensitive information can result in lawsuits against the firm and damage its reputation.

Read more at Insurance Market Source

Businesses, beware: Cyber liability victims come in all shapes and sizes, exposures may come from any direction, and nearly all organizations are potential targets. According to the Ponemon Institute, a Michigan-based research center dedicated to privacy, data protection and information security policy, 51 percent of CEOs surveyed reported experiencing a data breach either hourly or daily.

This fall, several large U.S. banks found themselves as the targets of a massive cyber attack, crippling their online banking services. Security analysts believe this was the biggest attack of its kind – and it will not be the last. Yet, it is not just big, well-known companies that need to be on alert.

Thanks to their education, training and experience, professionals in a wide range of fields tend to be successful, respected members of their communities who enjoy excellent reputations and comfortable lifestyles. Whether advising clients, representing them, or performing services on their behalf, professionals generally do so with good intentions and most often procure favorable or expected results.

Last May, Vice President and Atlanta Burns & Wilcox Branch Manager Jim Epting was co-conducting a seminar for 30 agents about the value of data privacy coverage when an agent’s BlackBerry started buzzing. The owner checked his email, gasped and immediately shared its contents with the class.