Imagine for a second that you are a nurse at a local, privately owned medical clinic. You wake up on a normal Thursday, go through your morning routine, and head to the clinic. Coffee in hand, you unlock the back door and start turning on the lights. As you drop your purse at your station, your mind starts running through your daily to-do list. Things that didn’t quite get finished yesterday…patients coming in today… I need to run by the grocery at lunch to grab bread for the kid’s lunches. You boot up your laptop to check the patient schedule for the day, the screen comes on, and……

''YOUR COMPUTER HAS BEEN LOCKED!"

What in the world?! Instead of your normal home screen, you see an unfamiliar box with a padlock graphic and a countdown. This isn’t good. The text informs you that the clinic’s systems have been breached. The hackers inform you that you have 2 days to wire them $500k in bitcoin or ALL of the clinic data will be gone forever. Your heart rate spikes. You hit a button. Nothing happens. You start wondering if you caused this and if you will lose your job.

What do you do next? Call the doc? Text a friend who is in IT? Call the cops? Start calling patients? Call the feds? Wait, how do you even call the feds? Oh, no…. this is going to ruin the clinic.

This scenario is just one example of what happens across our country every 11 seconds. Cyber-crime is at an all-time high, and the post-Covid world’s reliance on technology has only deepened the threat.

WHAT IS CYBER INSURANCE?

Cyber-liability insurance is additional liability insurance that will protect a business (large or small) from ransomware, malware, wire transfer fraud, and other types of breaches. Coverage limits range from $500k into the millions, depending on the revenue they protect and the level of exposure in certain industries. Cyber-liability is NOT an information technology service. Both are needed to protect a business. While IT serves as a front-end protection to prevent cyber-breach, no business is 100% safe. Cyber-liability insurance serves as the back-end protection if a breach does occur. Plans can help businesses recoup funds lost due to:

• System restoration
  
• Regulatory fines
  
• Notification costs
  
• Ransom payments
  
• Business income lost from interruption to normal operations
  
• Reputational harm
• Customer payment fraud

SHOULD MY BUSINESS HAVE A STANDALONE CYBER PLAN?

100%, yes, it should. Limits, premiums, and coverages may vary, as not all businesses share the same exposure. Every business has a bank account. Most operate in some fashion on computers or via the internet. Some hold vital customer information.

If you are a business owner or a key employee at a high-risk business for cyber-crime, call Block today at (870) 236-8744 to find out more about a plan to protect yourself and your co-workers.

Learn more: Cyber Insurance

By Andy Runyan