A few weeks ago, I got a call from a business owner I know well. Lisa runs a small design studio in Austin. Honest work, loyal clients, never late on a project. She stays up past midnight half the time making sure her clients are happy.
One ordinary Tuesday morning, she went to check her email and nothing opened. Then her team called her in a panic because every file they had on their server was locked. No way to finish client work, no way to access invoices, no way to get paid. Right there on her screen was a message telling her she had seventy-two hours to pay $25,000 in Bitcoin or lose everything forever.
She thought her commercial insurance policy would handle it. After all, she had rock-solid business coverage. But when she called her agent, she found out that policy didn’t touch a cyber attack like this. Cyber ransom attack meant she was on her own.
Sadly, these types of cyber extortion attacks are happening more and more to smaller businesses. Small and mid-sized Texas businesses are now prime targets for nefarious hackers all over the globe.
The frequency and cost of these attacks is getting worse by the week. I want to break down what you really need to know about cyber threats, why your regular general liability insurance probably won’t cover it, and how to fix that before it turns your life upside down.
When people hear “cyber attack,” they picture big news headlines about tech giants or huge retailers being involved in hacking incidents. But those companies have large teams guarding their customer data twenty-four seven. Hackers know they’re harder to break into. So they look for easier prey.
A typical small business here in Texas has a few computers. It might have a server that holds client files, invoices, and confidential data. Maybe there is an IT guy who checks things every so often. The bad guys know this.
The foreign cyber criminals are now casting wider nets with phishing emails, infected attachments, and fake login pages. All it takes is one person clicking the wrong link or using a weak password. And boom! The data breach has begun.
These criminals aren’t teenagers with too much time on their hands. These well-organized crime groups in other countries are spending every day finding vulnerable businesses just like yours. They understand that risk management may not be your strong suit.
When they get in, they lock everything down and demand money fast. Lisa found this out the hard way. And they do it because it works. Texas businesses lose millions every year to these cyber breaches because cyber liability insurance is not top of mind. And for many small businesses, the downtime, the ransom, and the lost trust from clients can be impossible to recover from.
Let’s clear up a big misconception. Property insurance protects your building if a storm tears the roof off. General liability insurance helps if a customer slips and breaks an ankle. Professional liability can help if someone sues over bad advice or a mistake.
But almost none of these help when someone on the other side of the world hacks into your files, demands a ransom, or steals your customers’ personal information.
A solid cyber liability insurance policy is different. A good one with cyber extortion defense will pay for a team of experts to get your data back, help handle ransom negotiations if needed, cover the cost of customer notification when information is exposed, pay for regulatory fines, and even help replace your lost income while you can’t operate.
Most Texas business owners like Lisa don’t realize how big that financial hole can get until it’s too late. A small ransom is often just the beginning. It’s the lost business, the cost of restoring systems, and the reputation hit that really stings. Cyber coverage fills in the hole.
If you tried to get a cyber liability policy a few years ago, it was usually easy. Pay a bit extra, sign your name, and you were covered. Not anymore.
Carriers are paying out huge sums for cyber claims every year, so they’re tightening the rules fast. Now, they want proof that your business is doing its part to stay secure from data breaches, phishing scams, ransomware attacks and other cyber attacks.
They may ask if you have two-factor authentication turned on for emails and bank logins. They want to know if you have backups stored in the cloud or offline. They’ll check if you train employees not to click suspicious links or open strange attachments.
If you don’t have this basic cyber protection, you might get turned down or quoted a sky-high premium that makes you wonder if it’s worth it at all.
But here’s the thing. Getting your house in order doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. A simple risk assessment can show you where your weak spots are and how cyber risk management can keep your business from danger. This makes getting great cyber liability coverage easier.
I’ve been in insurance for a long time. I’ve seen every excuse: “We’re too small for hackers to bother with,” “We don’t have anything worth stealing,” “It won’t happen to us.”
I promise you, the foreign cyber criminals count on that mindset. They rely on busy business owners like Lisa being so focused on serving clients and growing the business that they don’t have time to think about finding cyber security coverage.
But when it hits, it hits fast and hard. And nobody wants to have that conversation after the fact when the damage is done and your client's data and your intellectual property are being held hostage.
I always tell my clients this: you don’t need to become a cyber security expert. You just need to be certain that if something goes wrong, you have the right cyber liability coverage and support lined up to handle it. That is the Promise Of Certainty.
You have enough on your plate running a business in Texas these days. Worrying about overseas hackers and their cyber attacks shouldn’t be part of your daily stress.
That’s exactly why Insurance For Texans partners with insurance companies who provide a cyber risk check-up. It’s fast and shows you exactly where you’re covered and where you might need a little more protection to avoid cyber intrusions.
If you want to make sure your business is ready for today’s threats, you need to work with an independent insurance agent who specializes in helping Texas businesses secure the cyber insurance they need.
Click the button below to get your cyber risk check-up today, so that you can secure the cyber insurance your business needs.