Protect your business from hacks, cyber attacks, and other online threats.
Cyber liability insurance customized to your business.
Cyber liability insurance protects your business against the expenses associated with a data breach. We’ll help you evaluate the data liability risks your business faces and find you a policy that meets your specific needs.
Cyber Liability Insurance for South Carolina Businesses
Cyber risks keep rising, and even small businesses feel the pressure. A single cyber event can shut down computer systems, expose customer data, and create financial losses that are hard to recover from.
If you want to protect your business and keep operations moving, Cyber Liability Insurance can make a real difference.
Cyber Liability Insurance with C.T. Lowndes
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What is Cyber Liability Insurance?
Cyber liability insurance is a type of business insurance that helps protect businesses from the costs that follow cyber incidents. A cyber liability insurance policy can include first party coverage for your own losses and third party coverage for claims made against you.
It can help with data breaches, cyber attacks, cyber extortion, system failures, and other cyber threats that interrupt your business or expose private data.
Cyber insurance coverage often responds to the events that standard general liability insurance or property insurance will not. It helps cover legal fees, legal expenses, credit monitoring for affected customers, customer notifications, crisis management, and regulatory investigation.
Many policies also support recovery if cyber attacks cause lost income, damage your IT infrastructure, or lead to ransom payments.
For businesses that store sensitive data, personally identifiable information, payment card industry records, or other business data, cyber liability insurance coverage helps protect organizations from the growing cost of modern cyber risks.
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Cyber Liability Coverage
Risk Factor
The Internet has spun a whole new web of liability exposures. E-commerce, social networking, cloud storage, and other technologies bring great benefits to large and small businesses alike. But with these benefits also come challenges, including protection of privacy, data, and financial information of your customers. If this information is lost, stolen, or compromised, your company is at risk. In fact, you may even be required by law to alert those impacted by the breach and to pay for any financial loss incurred.
Solution
Cyber liability coverage offers protection due to unauthorized access of electronic data or software within your network. It also provides coverage for spreading a virus, computer theft, extortion, or any unintentional act, mistake, error, or omission made by an employee. This coverage is quickly becoming more and more important as you embrace technology to help run your business.
First-Party Coverage
Risk Factor
If your company is faced with a data breach or cyber-attack, you may be forced to cover breach-related expenses such as crisis management, hiring a public relations firm to manage a data breach incident, costs associated with forensic analysis, the cost of repairing and restoring computer systems if there is a virus that destroys business software and data, and the loss of business income resulting from a data breach.
Solution
First-party coverage will insure your business for losses to your own data or lost income or for other harm to your business resulting from a data breach or cyber-attack. This coverage will pay you for things like business interruption, the cost of notifying customers of a breach, and even the expense of hiring a public relations firm to repair any damage done to your image as a result of a cyber-attack. Having this funding available in the event of a crippling hack can keep the lights on till you’re able to resume your normal business operations.
Business Income
Risk Factor
What would you do if an email virus impacted the operation of your database and prevented you from serving clients for a day or more? Or what if a hacker or cyber-criminal caused a system outage or extended downtime, leaving your business inoperable? These and other events can destroy your ability to serve clients and bring in revenue, which can have a major long-term impact on the viability of your business.
Solution
Business Income and Business Interruption coverages help with financial hardships, such as loss of income or operating costs, that you bear due to a covered incident.
Third-Party Coverage
Risk Factor
If your business handles sensitive customer data (such as email lists, credit card records or other files), data breaches pose a serious threat to your financial stability. A lawsuit resulting from a data breach means your business is responsible for paying legal fees, court-ordered judgments or settlements and other court-related costs.
Solution
Third-party coverage protects you in the event of a lawsuit brought by a customer or partner for a data breach that your business' actions or negligence allowed.
Regulatory Claim Coverage
Risk Factor
If your business experiences a data breach or violation of confidential information during regular business operations, you may be found in violation of privacy laws and be required to pay fines for the violations or other regulatory issues.
Solution
You may be eligible for regulatory claim coverage which would offer protection in response to proceedings related to disclosure laws and other governmental actions that can result in defense costs, fines and/or penalties. Coverage does vary and may be restricted by local law.
Ransom Coverage
Risk Factor
If hackers gain control of critical systems, they may demand a ransom be paid to avoid additional consequences. Sometimes these can be empty threats, but it’s impossible to know for sure. Paying the ransom can be costly. Taking a chance by choosing not to pay can sometimes put a company out of business.
Solution
Coverage for ransom and cyber extortion can be included in cyber liability policies and can help cover the cost of ransom to regain control of network systems. This is often not included in a standard policy, may include a separate sublimit and deductible, and may require adherence to certain conditions set forth by the insurer.
Who Needs It?
Any business that relies on computer systems, handles customer information, or manages private data faces exposure. This includes small businesses and larger companies.
Cyber incidents can affect retail stores with pos systems, healthcare practices, professional firms, restaurants, contractors, and nonprofits. Even small businesses pay significant costs after a security breach.
Many claims come from ineffective security processes, poor configuration management, poor security processes, or a single security incident caused by an insider attack. Prior breaches or omissions can also raise liability insurance cost and influence the average deductible or coverage limits you are offered.
If you handle customer data, store sensitive data, or depend on digital tools to protect businesses and keep daily operations running, a cyber insurance policy provides a safety net that is hard to replace.
What Does It Cover?
Cyber liability coverage is flexible, and the right cyber insurance policy can be adjusted to fit your business size, industry, and risk level. Cyber insurance covers a range of expenses tied to cyber events, including:
First party coverage
- Costs to restore computer systems and business data after a cyber event
- Recovery from data theft and security failures
- Lost income due to downtime or system failures
- Credit monitoring and customer notifications
- Crisis management and consulting services
- Ransom payments tied to cyber extortion
Third party coverage
- Claims from customers whose private data or customer information was compromised
- Legal defense costs, legal costs, and legal fees
- Privacy liability coverage
- Support during a regulatory investigation
- Coverage for payment card industry penalties (fines, fees, and assessments levied by credit card companies)
- Assistance if a security breach creates harm to clients or partners
- Some policies also address patent infringement or errors related to omissions insurance
Additional benefits
- Protection if active threats cause damage
- Support if an organization purchased prior policies and needs help navigating claims history
- Cyber liability insurance cover designed around your industry risks
- Cyber coverage that can work alongside your other insurance policies, including small business insurance and general liability insurance
What Affects the Cost of Cyber Liability Insurance?
Cyber liability insurance cost depends on several factors, including:
- Size of your business and how much customer data you handle
- Strength of your cyber security practices
- Claims history or prior breaches
- Policy limits, coverage limits, and the amount of third party coverage or first party protection you choose
- Whether you use pos systems or store sensitive financial info
- Amount of cyber coverage included in your insurance policy
Good cyber security processes help lower liability insurance cost and show that you take active threats seriously.
Cyber Liability Insurance FAQ
Below are a few common questions businesses ask when comparing cyber risk insurance options.
Does cyber liability insurance cover data breaches caused by poor security processes?
Often yes. Even ineffective security processes or a single oversight can lead to a cyber event. Most policies help with recovery and legal defense costs, though coverage varies.
Will cyber insurance help with financial losses from cyber attacks?
Yes. Many policies include reimbursement for financial losses, including lost income and system damage.
Does cyber liability protect small businesses?
Yes. Small businesses are often targeted because attackers assume there are weaker defenses. Cybersecurity insurance helps protect small businesses from the same risks larger firms face.
Is cyber liability different from property insurance or general liability insurance?
Yes. Traditional liability insurance and property insurance exclude cyber threats. Cyber liability fills that gap.
Get a Cyber Liability Insurance Quote
For more than 175 years, C.T. Lowndes & Co has helped South Carolina businesses choose insurance coverage that fits their risks and protects what they value.
Our team understands how evolving cyber attacks impact local organizations. We work with you to help you build the right cyber insurance policy so you can focus on running your business with confidence.
Request your cyber liability insurance quote from C.T. Lowndes & Co today.
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As an independent agency, we are here to help you find the right Cyber Liability Insurance coverage.
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As an independent agency, we are here to help you find the right coverage.
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