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The Fix: Cyber Coverage for Your Association

Why your association may want to invest in cyber-liability insurance.

What is cyber-liability insurance?

Cyber policies cover an organization’s liability and certain internal costs resulting from a data breach in which members’ personal information is exposed or stolen. The cost of responding to a breach includes legal and forensic services, notifying individuals whose information has been compromised, providing credit and identity monitoring and restoration services, and public relations expenses—all of which could be covered by a such a policy.

Why should associations be looking into cyber-liability coverage?

Organizations that collect sensitive or confidential data have a duty to protect it from unauthorized use or access. Accordingly, nearly every association is at high risk of a data breach that could result from hacking events, the accidental release or theft of data, or the physical loss of laptops or mobile devices storing sensitive data.

What types of cyber-liability plans benefit associations most?

As with all insurance policies, there’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to cyber insurance. Associations should complete a detailed risk assessment to find the best policy for their particular set of risk factors, but it should likely include some or all of these coverages:

Crisis management coverage for expenses related to incident management, the investigation, the remediation, data subject notification, call management, credit checking for data subjects, legal representation, court attendance, and regulatory fines.

Extortion liability coverage for losses due to a threat of extortion and professional fees related to dealing with the extortion.

Network security liability coverage for third-party damages as a result of hackers denying owners access to their website, costs related to data of third-party suppliers, and expenses related to the theft of data on third-party systems.

(ByoungJoo/iStock/Getty Images Plus)

Associations Now Staff

By Associations Now Staff

The Associations Now team of editors covers all aspects of association management in print, blogs, and daily news. MORE

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