Every year, over 43 percent of all small and medium businesses are targeted by cyber crooks. That's the word from New York Small Business Development Center.

This is one reason that cyber liability protection is one of the fastest growing sectors of the insurance market. Contact Newbridge Coverage for your Cyber Liability Insurance quote at 1-516-781-9000.

On average your business will need $38,000 to put things right after a hack attack. These costs are steadily rising and many smaller businesses do not recover from a breach.

Cyber Liability Coverage Explained
So, what exactly is cyber liability insurance?

You may hear all sorts of terms being used for this in addition to cyber liability insurance. For instance: cyber security insurance, data breach insurance, data breach liability, data compromise insurance or data privacy insurance.

Take your pick. To a large extent, these terms overlap each other or mean the same thing, so it's best always to be sure that the risks you face are the ones that are actually covered in your policy. Speak to your insurance agent about this.

Whatever you call it, this type of insurance is a fairly recent innovation and some insurers are still feeling their way on the scope of the protection they provide. Others have already developed a high degree of expertise.

So, when you're looking for coverage, it's worth talking to your agent to ensure you go with a carrier who understands the risks.

• System recovery after damage to your computer systems by malware, including dealing with loss of data
  The costs of dealing with a data breach, including defending lawsuits for losses, damage, fraud, defamation and privacy violations, and paying subsequent award settlements.
• The costs of defending against distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS), in which criminals disrupt your systems by bombarding them with data inquiries.
• Fines and other penalties for breaching of security regulations.
• Notifying customers and civil authorities of a data breach -- a legal requirement in New York state.
• Financial losses in your business as a result of disruption caused by being hacked.
• The costs of responding to an extortion threat.
• Losses arising from illegal fund transfers from your business.
• PR and other types of costs associated with rebuilding your reputation after an incident.

Some policies also provide coverage for providing data monitoring services and call center support for affected clients.

Policies can be either standalone, or they can be part of a multi-peril commercial insurance package.

It's worth pointing out too that cyber liability isn’t just about insuring the security of your office computer systems. It also extends to laptops, tablets and cell phones that may contain confidential information that would fall into the hands of crooks if any of these devices were lost or stolen.