Cyber Liability

3 Cyber Insurance Lessons From the HBO Data Breach

Copyright 2017 Home Box Office, Inc. Winter is com…wait, nope, those are lawyers. Lawyers are coming. Fresh off the heels of the personally identifiable information (PII) of every registered voter in the United States being stolen, another American institution is on the defense. OK so maybe it’s not an “institution” per se. HBO was the target

Startup Risk Tips: Optimizing your Insurance Policies

Insurance should be seen as more of an investment than a cost, but given the busy and chaotic lives of Founders, it sometimes becomes a check-the-box activity.  When utilized properly, companies can get value from their policies well beyond that generated by a “set it and forget it” approach.  Here are a few tips to optimize your insurance policies

FS ALERT: Equifax Data Breach

On Thursday, September 7th, consumer credit reporting agency Equifax announced they had been the target of a data breach. According to the agency, the records of 143 million Americans have been compromised by an attack which was discovered on July 29th. Stolen data include names, birthdays, addresses, social security numbers and (in over 200,000 cases)

#Whatis: cyber insurance, crime insurance, & social engineering insurance

Most people have heard of cyber insurance. News of cyber breaches and fraud graces the headlines almost weekly these days. But are you really covered for all types of thefts committed using the latest technology? The answer is probably not, especially if you aren’t purchasing crime insurance. Let’s take a look at what you’re covered

Excess Insurance, Umbrella Policies and Why Your Business Needs Them

The Top 5 Business Insurance Requirements from Landlords, Clients, and Investors

We see all kinds of business insurance requirements (and coverage change requests) from our clients’ landlords, clients, investors, business partners, and more. These requests are processed by creating an “endorsement” on the policy that puts the change into effect. From a location change to adding a new coverage to a liability policy, some endorsements are

Insurance for Bitcoin Companies

The Space Bitcoin use has been exploding lately, with recent (September 2013) numbers suggesting that over 66,000 bitcoin transactions occur each day!  More and more e-commerce platforms and vendors accept Bitcoin as payment each day to the point where the market cap is currently $1.6B and only expected to grow. Needless to say, the bitcoin

Why High-Growth Businesses Need Social Engineering Insurance

When we mention “cyber insurance” to most clients, they tend to immediately picture situations like the Target or Yahoo data breaches.  They picture some mystery mastermind on the dark web scheming up an elaborate plan to crack firewalls and compromise networks. While that clearly happens more than we’d all like, it’s not the only liability out there, and it

Pokemon Go, Harry Potter, & Augmented Reality Insurance Risks

  Are you one of the 30 million worldwide users who has downloaded Pokemon Go in the last few weeks? It’s likely, since the app has been downloaded more times in its short existence than Tinder has over the past four years. Regardless of whether you run around chasing Pokemon in your day-to-day, chances are

Getting Business Insurance for On-Demand Startups

Mary Meeker of KPCB Sounds the Cyber Security Alarm

With the release of her annual report this week, veteran internet analyst and Kleiner Perkins partner Mary Meeker sounded the alarm on the state of cyber security. Meeker’s reports are essentially the bible to investors and entrepreneurs in the space.  The report contains valuable data on everything from mobile to emerging markets, but the slides on cyber security

The 2013 Target Data Breach: Insurance Coverage Recap

Retail Giant Target was hit with a massive data breach incident during the holiday season of 2013.  We posted a few articles outlining the severity of the breach and speculating on how cyber insurance may be their lifeline.  Here’s a quick follow up on the claims the company has seen since the incident. VentureBeat recently reported

4 Ways Cyber Insurance May Be Anthem’s Data Breach Lifeline

For anyone that hasn’t heard, Anthem, one of the nation’s largest health insurance providers, suffered a data breach in which an estimated 80 Million customer and employee records containing personally identifiable information were compromised.

Insurance for Fintech Companies

  Founder Shield 101: Insurance for Fintech Companies. From financial products to payments to investing, fintech is a red hot.  The market is forecasted to grow to $6-8 billion by 2018 and Q1 2014 alone saw 1.7 billion invested across 167 deals.

Insurance for Ecommerce Companies

Consumer Ecommerce is booming. With the vast array of web developers, payment processors and digital currencies, it has never been easier to get an online business off the ground. The US market alone is estimated at $409 billion for 2017. By 2022, it’s expected to make up to as much 17% of all retail sales nationwide. Risks

Inside Job: The 2014 Morgan Stanley Data Breach

While most of us are coming back rested and refreshed for the new year, Morgan Stanley can’t quite say the same as the bank’s 2014 ended with a massive data breach. Just two days after Christmas, information security employees at the bank discovered the data breach.  The bank was conducting a standard sweep of known criminal websites

Year in Review: 2014 Cyber Attacks (What Startups Should Know)

2014 Cyber Attacks Reviewed For the last four years, cyber risk management firm Net Diligence has done a report on cyber insurance claims for the year…and 2014 has been a hell of a year for cyber attacks.  This year’s report has been published and has some very interesting findings pertaining to the startup community.  

3 Risks an On-Demand Services Company Needs to Consider

Update: We’ve released a new whitepaper examining the Sharing Economy industry. We dive into the insurance landscape, legal climate and how to approach risk management for companies in this sector. You can download the report here! Food for thought: on-demand services company risk profile The on-demand services company (think Uber, Makespace, Fly Cleaners…) is taking over the

Updated 2014 Data Breach Notification Costs by State

Data Breach Notification Costs Cyber liability costs are soaring these days for all kinds of businesses (startups included).  Most people think of these “costs” as those related directly to the data breach: legal defense fees, settlements with users and 3rd party vendors, and forensic costs. Loss attributed to data breach notification costs can go under the radar.

The “Dos” &”Don’ts” of Buying Startup Company Insurance

Buying startup company insurance can be a daunting task.  The insurance market is fragmented and there is no shortage of products out there.  The industry is not exactly tech savvy either, and many brokers still employ tools as archaic as fax machines in their practices.  Just finding where to start can be a hassle! When

Insurance for Internet of Things Companies

Insurance for Internet of Things Companies — what you need to know The Internet of Things space is exploding right now and shows no signs of slowing down.  In fact, some sources estimate that there will be 200 billion connected devices on the planet by 2020.  The current global market size is estimated at $4.9