Many fields have begun to bring cyber liability into their business operations. Architects, though not a field that would normally be attacked. As laws change, they too must be able to keep up on newest changes in laws.
There are many reasons why Architects, Engineers and even Contractors should consider Cyber Liability Insurance for themselves. Among them include the following:
- Privacy laws and the Fines: 47 States, the District of Columbia and the Federal government have privacy laws on the books that require notification if Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is leaked, stolen or lost if they were on an unencrypted server. The fines from these breaches can be very expensive if they are in the wrong state, such as California with their General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Cyber Liability insurance will cover any losses resulting from said breach, which General liability, Crime and Architects or Contractor’s E&O won’t cover.
- Data Destruction and Disruption of Business: Many architecture and engineering firms have valuable drawing data for the buildings they have been contracted to along with a variety of customer logs and material shipping. Hackers and rogue employees can breach your servers and destroy all of that. This can lead to a severe loss of output and in the worst-case scenario destroy your business. Cyber liability insurance can cover this.
- Extortion: One way that hackers can hold your company hostage is through extortion. Through phishing and social engineering, they can gain access to your private servers and using Cryptolocker technology, hold your information, such as PII, corporate data and even contract hostage for a valuable sum. Costs such as this can be covered under Cyber coverage
- Reputational loss: More than anything, a breach that goes unreported or even breaching hundreds of customers can destroy your reputation. You would need to hire someone to help someone recover such losses, something that isn’t covered under a general policy but is under a cyber policy.[1]
Architects and contractors have valuable information that hackers would love to get a hold of. Cyber liability insurance will help cover the costs if and when a cyber breach occurs. Everyone should take the time to create a plan and prepare themselves.
[1] https://www.founderspro.com/2020/01/06/10-reasons-architects-engineers-need-to-buy-cyber-liability-insurance/
