COVERTRADE SERVICES
Cyber Insurance
Comprehensive protection against data breaches, ransomware attacks, and cyber threats to keep your business secure.
No Other Policy You Hold Covers This
It is worth being blunt about this, because it is the most common misunderstanding we encounter: nothing else in your insurance programme responds to a cyber attack.
Property and business interruption cover need physical damage, and encrypted systems involve none. Public liability covers injury and damage to property, not data. Professional indemnity might answer a client's claim about your advice, but not your own systems being down or your own data being taken. The gap is not an oversight. Those policies were written before this risk existed.
What a cyber policy actually buys, and the part policyholders use most, is not the money. It is having someone to call at two in the morning who has done this before.
What Our Cyber Insurance Covers
Data Breach Response
Can cover the cost of investigating and responding to a data breach, and commonly extends to customer notification and credit monitoring, depending on the policy.
Ransomware & Cyber Extortion
Can respond to ransom demands and to the cost of recovering compromised systems and restoring operations, depending on the policy.
Business Interruption
Covers lost income and business expenses if your operations are forced to shut down due to a cyberattack.
Digital Asset Recovery
Pays to restore lost or corrupted data and software following an attack, minimizing downtime and recovery costs.
Third-Party Liability
Covers legal fees and compensation claims if clients or third parties are affected by a breach of your systems.
Regulatory Fines & Investigations
Assists with the cost of defending against and responding to GDPR and other data protection penalties (where insurable by law).
Social Engineering Fraud
Can cover losses caused by deception-based attacks such as phishing and invoice fraud, though this is often a separate section with its own limit.
The Attack That Actually Happens To Small Firms
Small businesses do not usually get attacked by anyone targeting them specifically. The two things that actually happen are duller and more effective.
Business email compromise. Someone gets into an email account, watches quietly for an invoice or a payment conversation, then steps in at the right moment with changed bank details. The money is transferred willingly to the wrong account. Check the sub-limit for this specifically. It is often lower than the headline policy limit, and for most firms it is the likeliest loss.
Ransomware. Usually arriving through a phishing email or an unpatched remote access point rather than anything sophisticated. Systems encrypted, trading stopped, and a decision to make under pressure.
Neither requires you to be interesting. Both are largely prevented by the same handful of controls insurers now ask about.
Incident Response Is Most Of The Value
The part of a cyber policy people actually use is not the indemnity. It is the response.
When something happens you get access to a breach team: IT forensics to work out what was accessed and close it, legal advice on what has to be reported and to whom, negotiators if there is an extortion demand, and PR help if it becomes public. Most policies run a 24-hour notification line, and using it early is usually a condition of cover as well as good sense.
For a business without an in-house security team (which is most businesses) that is worth more than the limit of indemnity. The difference between an incident handled properly in the first six hours and one improvised over a weekend is usually the difference between an inconvenience and a serious loss.
Before You Apply
The controls underwriters now ask about.
- Multi-factor authentication on email
- MFA on remote access and admin accounts
- Backups held offline or immutably
- Backups actually tested
- Patching within a defined period
- Staff phishing awareness training
- Flexible payment options
- Dedicated account managers
- Out-of-hours contact should you need to make a claim or just have a question
- A quick and easy, pain-free service
- An excellent customer experience
What Insurers Expect You To Have In Place
Cyber underwriting has tightened considerably, and some controls are now effectively conditions rather than discounts. Expect to be asked about multi-factor authentication on email and remote access, backups that are tested and held offline or immutably, how quickly security patches are applied, and whether staff have had any phishing training.
Answer honestly. A policy obtained by overstating your controls is a policy that may not respond, and multi-factor authentication in particular is now a condition on many wordings rather than a question. The good news is that these are the same measures that prevent most incidents in the first place, so the work is not wasted either way.
The ICO, And What A Breach Actually Costs
A personal data breach usually has to be reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office within 72 hours, and affected individuals told where the risk to them is high. That is a legal duty regardless of insurance, and the clock is short enough that improvising is expensive.
Cyber cover typically pays the cost of managing that: legal advice on whether and what to notify, the notification itself, credit monitoring where appropriate, and representation during an ICO investigation. Regulatory fines themselves are generally not insurable where the law does not permit it, but the costs of dealing with the regulator usually are, and on a small breach those costs are most of the bill.
Business Interruption From Being Locked Out
Ordinary business interruption cover responds to physical damage, a fire, a flood. Being unable to trade because your systems are encrypted involves no physical damage at all, which is precisely why a standard commercial policy does not answer it.
Cyber business interruption can cover the income lost while systems are down and the extra costs of working around them, subject to the limits the policy sets. Two things to check: the waiting period before it starts, often 8 to 12 hours, and whether it extends to an outage at your IT supplier or cloud provider rather than only your own systems, for most businesses now, that is where the outage will actually happen. Premiums can be paid monthly or annually.
What We Need To Quote
Your annual turnover, roughly how many personal data records you hold and of what kind, whether you take card payments and how, what systems the business depends on to trade, whether multi-factor authentication is enabled on email and remote access, how backups are taken and whether they are tested, who provides your IT support, and any incidents in the last five years.
Protect Your Business
So why wait? Protect your business today with CoverTrade's comprehensive cyber insurance coverage. Contact us now to schedule a consultation with one of our expert advisors who can assess your cyber risks and recommend the right protection for your business.
Cover that often goes with this
The gaps we most often find sitting next to this policy.
- Professional indemnityWhere the loss is your advice rather than your systems.
- Commercial combined insuranceThe property and liability side, which no cyber policy covers.
Common questions
Does my business insurance already cover a cyber attack?+
Almost certainly not. Property and business interruption cover respond to physical damage, and encrypted systems involve no physical damage. Public liability covers injury and property damage, not data. Professional indemnity may respond to a claim from a client about your advice, but not to your own systems being down or your own data being stolen. Cyber is a separate policy because it answers a set of losses the others were never written for.
What does cyber insurance actually cover?+
Incident response first (a breach team, IT forensics, legal advice) which is what most policyholders actually use. Then business interruption while systems are unusable, the cost of restoring data and systems, cyber extortion including ransomware negotiation, liability to third parties whose data you held, the cost of notifying people and dealing with the ICO, and in many cases losses from funds transferred fraudulently through business email compromise.
Is ransomware covered, and would you pay a ransom?+
Ransomware is covered by most cyber policies, and cover typically includes specialist negotiators, forensic investigation and the cost of restoring systems, as well as the ransom itself where paying is lawful and appropriate. Whether to pay is a decision taken with the insurer and specialists at the time, and payment is not automatic. Many incidents are resolved from backups instead, which is one reason insurers ask so persistently about whether yours are tested.
What is business email compromise?+
It is the attack that most often affects small firms, and it is not dramatic. Someone gains access to an email account, watches for an invoice or a payment discussion, then intervenes with changed bank details at the right moment. Money is transferred willingly to the wrong account. Cyber policies commonly cover it, but the limit for it is often lower than the headline policy limit. Check that sub-limit specifically, because for many businesses this is the loss most likely to happen.
What do insurers expect us to have in place?+
Multi-factor authentication on email, remote access and administrator accounts, which is now a condition on many wordings rather than a discount. Backups that are held offline or immutably and, crucially, tested. Security patches applied within a defined period. Some staff phishing awareness training. Answer honestly. A policy obtained by overstating controls may not respond, and these are the measures that prevent most incidents anyway.
How much is cyber insurance?+
For a typical SME, somewhere between £350 and £5,000 a year, with a low-risk microbusiness paying as little as £175 and entry-level cover advertised from around £60 to £130 a year. The spread is that wide because cyber is priced on what you hold rather than what you turn over: the volume and sensitivity of your data, how much trading stops if the systems do, and the controls you have in place. Good answers on multi-factor authentication and backups genuinely move the price. Call 02382 000820 and we will price yours.
What our customers say on Google
5.0average from 169 Google reviews