Cybercrime Insurance

It’s estimated nearly half (45%) of all Canadian small businesses have suffered a cyber-attack, and over 40% of businesses say a cyber-attack cost them $100,000.

Cybercrime insurance covers loss of funds due to cybercrime, including phishing, hacking, or social engineering fraud. This policy includes coverage for notification costs, data restoration, and legal expenses.

A cybercrime insurance policy specifically covers criminal activities that occur via the internet or other computer networks affecting your business. It’s designed to address online financial theft and fraud committed against your business, including:

• Funds Transfer Fraud: Covers your business’s loss of funds due to fraudulent transfers initiated through hacking, phishing, or social engineering. For example, if you transfer money to a customer or supplier, and a hacker intercepts and re-routes the money in transit so your customer doesn’t receive it, cybercrime insurance may cover your losses.

• Theft of Digital Assets: Covers losses or damages of digital assets, like intellectual property or confidential data due to criminal activity, including spoofing, phishing, and spear phishing attacks.

• Ransomware Payments: Coverage for ransom payments made in response to cyber extortion or a ransomware attack up to your policy’s coverage limit.

• Employee or Vendor Fraud: Covers financial losses from fraudulent actions conducted by employees or third-party vendors with access to your systems.

• Social Engineering Attacks: Social engineering is a method by which cybercriminals attempt to manipulate employees into voluntarily providing confidential information about themselves or their employers so a hacker can gain control of a computer or network. Cybercrime insurance covers financial losses from deception or manipulation by a hacker that fools employees to release sensitive company data or authorize fraudulent financial  transactions.

• Phishing Attacks: Phishing is a technique cybercriminals use to try to bait victims into believing they’re someone they’re not, and clicking on a malicious link. Most phishing attacks are made using email. Cybercrime insurance also helps businesses recover from damages and losses incurred following a phishing attack.

Cybercrime insurance complements cyber liability insurance to provide businesses with comprehensive financial coverage for cyber incidents.

Although they appear to be similar, there are differences between cybercrime insurance and cyber liability insurance.

Cybercrime insurance is designed to cover financial losses caused by criminal activity online, such as theft, fraud, and ransomware.

Cyber liability insurance covers your legal and financial responsibilities following a cyber-attack or data breach, like lawsuits against you and regulatory fines.