Cyber insurance

It can be very difficult for salons to effectively handle cyberattacks and impossible to predict when they will happen. Many businesses rely on anti-virus software installed on their machines and implement firewall protection on their network, but this is not always enough to defend against increasingly devious cyber criminals, who continue to advance their own technologies to stay ahead of the security software.

This is where cyber insurance comes into its own, as it will help your salon business survive an attack in the future. Cyber insurance has provisions within the policy cover to help investigate any breach, cover any losses involved, and assist in paying legal costs and any regulatory fines that may emanate from a breach.

“Cyber insurance has provisions to help investigate any breach, cover any losses involved, and assist in paying legal costs”

Growing need

Being relatively new to the market, having first been developed around 10 years ago, cyber insurance has had one of the fastest new policy take-up rates in recent years, especially since the arrival of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Under these regulations, which came into force in May 2018, it is mandatory for all businesses including salons to report any data breaches, and without a proper insurance policy in place, salons could face huge fines for any breach.

Many clients ask what cyber insurance actually covers, as there is a definite absence of education on the subject. In general, you can expect the following covers under a cyber insurance policy:

• Expert analysis to investigate any breach

• Handling the notification to customers and regulatory bodies

• Covering class action costs and legal fees

• Assistance in paying legal costs and regulatory fines

• Crisis management assistance, providing expert support to mitigate reputational damage

• Cyber extortion, covering losses following the threat of extortion and access to expertise in advising and helping to deal with an incident

• Business interruption costs, including supply chain issues and system failures. This will also include increased costs of working during the period it takes to rectify.

It is fair to say that all salons will have a cyber exposure in some shape or form and would benefit from a cyber insurance policy. Policies are available from just a few hundred pounds for entry-level cover, and this is well worth the investment for the peace of mind alone.

Contact Professional Beauty Direct Insurance on 0345 605 8670 or professionalbeauty.co.uk/insurance