Most dental practices – even the ones with cyber insurance in place – have a significant coverage gap. Cyber insurance is not a standardized insurance policy and comes in many forms. If you’re not careful about the type of policy you get – or if you have no coverage at all – your practice’s continued existence is at risk.
What is Cyber Insurance?
Cyber Insurance is a way to transfer the risk your business faces in regard to a laundry list of exposures related to privacy and the internet. While not comprehensive, common areas of risk covered by the more robust Cyber Insurance policies include:
- Privacy Liability
- Data Breaches
- Damages to 3rd Party Systems
- System Failures
- Cyber Extortion
- Business Interruption
- Fraud
Cyber Insurance comes in many different forms. While most dental practices don’t have any cyber coverage, those that do often have inferior coverage added with low limits as an endorsement to their Businessowners Insurance Policy.
This is comparable to getting your teeth cleaned when what you really need is a root canal. On the surface, it may look like you’re OK, but if you let the problem fester, there will be serious problems.
Why do I need Cyber Insurance coverage?
Most of the cyber attacks or data breaches you hear about are for big companies. Target. Equifax. Sony. Your business isn’t anywhere near as big as these companies – are you really at risk?
There is a widespread and mistaken belief that small businesses are unlikely targets for cyber attacks. The fact of the matter is that small businesses are prime targets for cyber crime because they don’t have the same protections larger corporations have.
Here are some important statistics* that illustrate why you need this coverage:
- 43% of cyber attacks target small businesses.
- 60% of small businesses that are victims of a cyber attack go out of business within 6 months.
- Healthcare is the industry most at risk for cyber attacks.
- 47% of small businesses have no understanding of how to protect themselves against a cyber attack.
- Human error and system failure account for 52% of data breaches.
- Small businesses spend an average of $955,429 to restore normal business following a successful attack.
At-Bay, a provider of cyber insurance that we work with, has a tool to help you estimate how much it would cost you if you had a data breach. You can run your own scenario here.
How much would it cost you if you were exposure to cyber crime or a data breach? Would your business be able to recover from that loss if didn’t have insurance coverage for it?
Protecting your business
The right way to protect your business is through a combination of controlling and transferring your risk. At Stillwell Risk Partners, we not only help you transfer your risk through an insurance policy, but we can help you put practices in place to reduce the likelihood of having a claim.
Some of the services we can provide to our clients include:
- Developing a Cyber Security Planning Guide
- Employee Training & Education
- Coordination of Risk Management Services
- Business Continuation Planning
If you’re interested in working with us or in learning more, let’s get started:
Or just give us a call at (610) 671-3500
*References: fundera.com