Protecting Your Website With Digital Business Insurance

We are living in a digital era, and more and more businesses are entirely or partially conducting aspects of their business online. Whether it is creating a commercial website, communicating with customers, accepting payments or advertising and marketing, a strong digital presence has become a necessity for any business wanting to compete in an increasingly saturated market.

Digitalisation provides convenience, accessibility and efficiency, and many small businesses rely on various hardware and software in order to operate as smoothly as possible. Evidently, your business’ digital assets are incredibly important and valuable. Devices such as computers and laptops can be expensive, and software can contain sensitive information about yourself and your customers.

It is essential, therefore, that you invest in digital business insurance so that you can ensure that you are sufficiently protected in the event that something should happen to your digital assets. If you have a business, and its operation is underpinned by digital technologies in any way, then this detailed and comprehensive guide on digital business insurance is for you.

1. What Is Digital Insurance For Businesses?
2. What Can It Cover?
3. Why Might You Need It?
4. It Can Be Surprisingly Affordable

What Is Digital Insurance For Businesses?

In the 21^st century, even the most mundane and routine of activities have a digital counterpart. Even if your business doesn’t provide a digitally-based product or service, there will still be countless aspects of your business that are digitalised. Card transactions and bank transfers are fast replacing cash payments, for example, and many customers will expect to have the option to pay digitally rather than with a physical currency.

Advertising and marketing has undergone extensive digitalisation as well, with newspaper advertisements and television commercials giving way to mailing lists, search engine ads as well as the huge potential of advertising on social media. There are many businesses, small as well as large, that have designed a commercial website from which their customers can browse products, place them into a basket and then checkout and submit a payment.

Wherever you have implemented technology into your business, it is likely that you and perhaps your employees rely on digital devices such as computers, laptops and tablets to check inventory, communicate with customers and ensure that everything is operating normally as well. It is probable that your business’ digital infrastructure is as critical, if not more, to the welfare of your business than other aspects such as your actual physical premises.

It’s clear that taking steps to become cyber-secure is crucial for businesses with a digital identity. Despite this, many small businesses neglect to sufficiently protect their digital infrastructure. However the reality is, digital insurance should be considered within the coverage of your main policy.

What Can It Cover?

When it comes to insurance coverage, one of the basic principles is that it should provide you with a financial buffer should anything adverse happen to you. And digital business insurance is so much more than a cushion against financial loss and data breaches.

For example, if your business is victimised by a cyberattack, then a potential loss of earnings and revenue isn’t your only concern. If there is a data breach, there is the risk that someone could make a legal claim against you on the basis that their personal information has been misused or that their privacy has been violated. The costs that are associated with this type of action are prohibitive, and could cripple a small business, especially if you are expected to compensate the claimant.

What’s more, there are digital insurance policies that will also cover the expenses associated with consulting a technology specialist. Whilst yourself and your employees may not have sufficient experience in responding to a cyberattack, a technology specialist may be able to minimise the damage of a data breach with their expert knowledge.

Your insurance will provide different types and levels of coverage. There will be policies that cover an attempted or successful cyberattack, any financial losses caused by outages, data breaches, data theft and legal fees.

Why Might You Need It?

Many business owners are aware of the importance of protecting their business from unpredictable and unavoidable events such as extreme weather, fires, flooding, theft, vandalism as well as sickness and injury. Whilst it may not seem immediately obvious, the digital infrastructure of your business can be just as vulnerable to adverse circumstances.

A power outage caused by a technical fault or tumultuous weather may not cause physical damage, but it could disable your digital infrastructure and prevent you from accepting payments from customers or processing online orders. Depending on the duration of the outage, this could cause a significant loss in earnings that may seriously affect your business. Alternatively, there could be a loss of data that cannot be recovered. A data breach is an even more pressing concern, especially where businesses are subjected to deliberate cyberattacks.

Not only will this disrupt normal operations, but the personal and financial information of employees and customers could potentially be compromised. In an environment where questions surrounding digital privacy are particularly contentious, it is important that customers are assured that the business they are purchasing from has done everything it can to protect their information. This is particularly important with businesses making the permanent transition to working from home. The same level of protection is needed for the tech employees use digital resources outside the office.

Each of these incidents can lead to lost business from antagonised customers and perhaps even reputational damage if your business becomes associated with frequent outages and downtimes.

What’s more, during a crisis the focus should be on resolving the issue as effectively and as calmly as possible. This can be difficult to do if you are worried that your business could be swamped with financial troubles because of this problem. With an insurance policy in place for your digital assets, you can concentrate on addressing the crisis rather than concerning yourself with the financial implications.

It Can Be Surprisingly Affordable

A digital business insurance policy can be surprisingly affordable, whilst still providing you with the protection that you and your business require.

In order to be eligible for protection, you will be expected to fulfil the conditions that are laid out within your policy – for example you will usually be expected to exercise due diligence and ensure that you do everything that is reasonably possible to make sure that the digital assets of your business are safe and secure. Then, if something were to happen, despite your utmost efforts, you will be assured that you will receive all of the support that you need to resume normal operations as soon as you can.

Digital assets are an incredible resource, but they can also be a source of unprecedented risk that many people aren’t familiar with. Digital business insurance will secure your business against any vulnerability in its digital infrastructure, and will truly make all the difference when it comes to recovering from an outage or a cyberattack. Our business insurance policies are designed to offer peace of mind, allowing you to focus on what you do best: running your business.

Maria Hickey

For more than 20 years, Maria has worked in the insurance sector and has extensive underwriting and customer service expertise. Maria is an experienced Senior Underwriter with a particular specialism for shop, office and surgery related insurance.

All articles by Maria Hickey