As ransomware and cyber-crime cases have seen a massive surge in India, it is imperative to take cyber insurance cover to keep your finances safe and secure. Pervasiveness of social media and digital payments have made the process of carrying out transactions easy, but the job of fraudsters has turned simpler at the same time.
Although we can do only a little to minimise the occurrence of cyber-crimes but can certainly do a lot to minimise their impact on our finances by getting these risks covered under cyber insurance policy.
So, there is little doubt then that a cyber insurance is vital owing to our growing reliance on technology and frequent sharing of passwords and card details.
"We are receiving lots of enquires from mid-size IT and other services sectors which could be a result of an increase in cyber-attacks in India. However, mid-size companies don't invest much on the IT network security as they are into cost minimizing, which have resulted into volatility," said Raghavendra Rao, Chief Distribution Officer of Future Generali India Insurance.
Things to keep in mind
At the time of taking cyber insurance, it is imperative to ensure that all potential threats are covered including third-party losses. For this, consumer should ideally make a list of threats and ensure that all of them are covered.
“There are several cyber-liability products that cover first and third-party losses as well as extortion. The way to buy cyber-liability insurance is to make a list of potential threats you face and then ask for those covers, at the minimum, from insurers,” said Kapil Mehta, Co-founder of SecureNow Insurance.
Naval Goel, CEO & Founder of PolicyX.com, says that policyholders should ensure that the insurance cover provides for financial losses incurred during the cyber-attack.
“Individual Cyber Security Insurance, recognized as cyber insurance generally, protects from cyber-attacks, data breaches, and hackers. It helps to minimize the loss that occurred by the attack and provides for some financial costs incurred,” says Naval Goel, CEO & Founder of PolicyX.com.
These are the key risks which cyber insurance cover protects you against:
Identity theft: This includes personal conversations, videos, pictures, text, browser history, passwords and bank details.
Phishing: This is an attempt to get sensitive information such as username, passwords, and credit card details by masquerading as a bank or any other entity via an electronic communication.
Email spoofing: Email spoofing is a manipulation of an e-mail header so that the message appears to have originated from the actual source.
Data breach: Loss of data such as photos, videos and text from computer or via internet.
Ransomware: This is a threat to cause a privacy breach, data breach or cyber-attack. It’s similar to an actual person holding a knife. People can virtually hide behind the shield of anonymity and you can often feel defenceless.
Few insurers offering this cover
There are some insurers that provide a cyber insurance coverage. For instance, Future Generali offers ‘personal cyber risks insurance’ that gives coverage against several online risks including malware, phishing, identity theft, cyberbullying and IT theft.
This covers email frauds, loss of private data due to malware. One can customise plan and choose items that you want protection against.
However, the policy doesn't cover loss to any devices caused by external network failure or power outage, cyber terrorism.
Bajaj Allianz also offers cyber safe insurance policy to give protection against potential cyber threats and risks such as malware attack, IT theft loss, phishing, email spoofing, media liability claims, cyber extortion and identity theft.
The sum assured goes from 1 lakh to 1 crore which can help you with the recovery of the data and sometimes your identity. The plans are made for an individual and can be topped up with covers to protect family, spouse, and children.
