We’ve all been there. Facing the reality of a lost or stolen smart phone. All your photos, emails and phone numbers, vanished in an instant. As an individual, this is an annoying and inconvenient situation, but as a business owner, this is a potential liability exposure.

Businesses are relying increasingly on being mobile. The ability to work from anywhere in the world, to Skype into meetings, mobile payment options—these are benefits to your business, your clients and attractive to potential employees.  We all know to protect our commercial property, such as our laptops and smart phones, through insurance, but what about the intangible property? What about your data?

If you handle client information, conduct business online or maintain a strong online presence, you have a cyber liability exposure. When you store data on your system or device, you are liable for its safekeeping. Should this data be compromised by a third party, and used for a nefarious purpose, you would be held liable.

Specialized cyber liability coverage is absolutely necessary. Your tangible property is protected by your commercial property policy; however, data losses are specifically excluded. You may also have a commercial general liability policy, which covers you for many traditional liability exposures, but again, cyber risks are excluded. Cyber liability insurance covers loss to your own data, and more importantly, to any client data you may have stored on your system.

A cyber liability policy will help protect you in the event of a data breech, copyright or trademark infringement, and data loss due to natural disaster or hacking. As an additional benefit, this policy can help protect your business’profitability should you have to interrupt work until your systems are restored.  The expense of a data loss, business interruption and potential damage to your business’ reputation, makes this coverage a worthy investment for many business owners.

As your business grows or you expand your online operations, consider protecting yourself with a cyber liability policy and rest assured you will be protected from Starbucks to Singapore.

Brittney Holton is a licensed insurance broker with Pearson Dunn Insurance, event coordinator extraordinaire, Master of Education, Bikram wannabe, whippet enthusiast,  and Chardonnay connoisseur. To chat about anyone of these topics you can contact Brittney at [email protected].