An Essential Add-on Coverage Option for Homeowners, Condo Owners, and Renters that Offers Protection Against a Range of Cyber Risks
From the moment we wake up to the minute we drift off to sleep, most of us are surrounded by an assortment of internet-connected devices. This technology saves us time, entertains us, makes us more comfortable, helps us communicate with each other, and simplifies our lives in so many ways. However, as invaluable as our mobile and smart devices have become, they are also remarkably easy targets for cybercriminals, often attracting thousands of cyberattacks per week. There are several precautions you can take to better protect these devices and your privacy, security, and personal and financial information from cyber threats. Unfortunately, taking these steps won’t stop cybercriminals from continuing to look for weak spots in your tech gadgets and home systems or attempting to trick you and your loved ones into giving up sensitive details and your money. The smart move is to prepare for a worst-case cyber scenario by investing in Personal Cyber Insurance.
What is Personal Cyber Insurance and why should you consider it?
Personal Cyber Insurance Coverage, also called Home Cyber Protection Coverage, is an optional, yet important, solution you can add to your home, condo, or renters insurance policy. Having this endorsement may help protect you and other members of your household against financial losses resulting from many types of cybercrimes, including cyberattacks, cyber extortion, online fraud, data breaches, and cyberbullying.
Not surprisingly, the more internet-connected technology you and your family members have, the more likely it is that one of you will end up the victim of a cybercrime. While smartphones, tablets, and computers remain popular infiltration points for hackers, everything and anything in your house that connects to the internet is susceptible to an attack. Following are just a few of the types of devices you may have in your home that cybercriminals view as highly vulnerable:
- Home Security and Pet Cameras
- Video Doorbells and Smart Locks
- Smart TVs
- Gaming Consoles
- Smart Speakers and Voice Assistants
- Wi-Fi Routers
- Smart Home Hubs and Automation Systems
- Smart Washing Machines, Light Bulbs, and Thermostats
- And More!
In addition, there are many reasons you might look like a particularly appealing mark to a cybercriminal, especially if any of the following describe your lifestyle:
- You do a lot of financial transactions online, from shopping and banking to using send-and-receive money apps.
- You have an active social media presence.
- You have a high net worth.
- You’re in a professional or volunteer role that gives you access to other people’s personally identifiable, sensitive, and confidential information.
Does it suddenly feel like you’re the perfect target for a cybercriminal? Now would be a great time to contact your local Gilbert Insurance professional to learn more about Personal Cyber Insurance. No matter how many different ways bad actors devise to outsmart you and your connected devices, having this coverage can help you stay one step ahead of them.
How does Personal Cyber Insurance work?
If you or a member of your household is the victim of a cybercrime, it can be a traumatic experience resulting in substantial financial losses, reputational damage, and emotional distress. Having Personal Cyber Insurance typically means you get critical financial and professional support to help you through this challenging situation.
While the specific details, terms, and limits will vary by insurance company, many of the top carriers we work with offer a Personal Cyber Insurance endorsement with a suite of cyber coverages and services to assist you in responding to and recovering from:
- Cyberattacks, including paying a professional firm to recover electronic data that has been lost or corrupted and restore affected computers and other connected home devices.
- Online fraud, including reimbursement for direct financial losses as the result of a fraud event, such as identity theft, unauthorized use of your credit card or bank account number, or forgery of a check, that involves your computer or other connected home device.
- Cyber extortion, including paying for professional advice from a subject matter expert on how to best respond to a credible threat when your device, system, or data is being held hostage for money, as well as the amount of the ransom if that is deemed the preferred course of action and approved in advance by your insurance company.
- Identity theft, including covering the cost of associated legal fees, notary fees, and credit bureau reports, and designating a dedicated identity recovery case manager to your claim.
- Data breaches, including paying for forensic IT and legal reviews as well as victim notification and recovery services.
- Cyberbullying, including helping with the cost of mental health counseling services, temporary tutoring and relocation expenses, and removing online content after a cyberbullying event, as well as the purchase of apps, social monitoring software, and web-based products to help prevent further cyberbullying occurrences.
Additionally, many of the insurance companies we work with at Gilbert don’t just sit back and wait for an incident to happen—they want to help you prevent a cybercrime from occurring in the first place. Several of our partners provide access to proactive cyber risk management tools, like real-time monitoring of the dark web and credit file alerts, that support you in keeping your sensitive information, personal devices, and home systems on lock down.
Please call the Gilbert team to learn more about the Personal Cyber Insurance solutions and services available to help safeguard you and your family. While this coverage definitely does not replace the need for you and your family to follow all preferred online safety practices, it can provide peace of mind that you have a good backup plan in place if these defenses fail to stop a cybercrime.
Our team believes the more you know about a potential threat, the more likely you’ll be able to see the warning signs and possibly prevent it from happening. So, below, we provide definitions of the five common cybercrimes covered by Personal Cyber Insurance.
- Cyberattacks are malicious attempts to access or damage your personal computers, mobile phones, gaming systems, and other internet- and Bluetooth-connected devices, usually for the purposes of stealing your money or personal, financial, or medical information.
- Cyber extortion occurs when monetary demands are made by a cybercriminal in exchange for unlocking or unencrypting personal devices, home systems, or personal and sensitive data they are holding hostage.
- Online fraud includes events such as identity theft, phishing schemes, social engineering, unauthorized wire transfer or payment, forgery or alteration of checks, acceptance in good faith of counterfeit currency, and theft of cryptocurrency that result in direct financial losses for the victim.
- Data breach is the loss, theft, or mistaken publishing of personal data entrusted to you by others.
- Cyberbullying is online harassment that is willful and repeated and may include sharing of personal or private information or negative, harmful, false, or mean content.
Please contact the Gilbert Insurance team if you would like to discuss your specific cyber risk.
