What is Cyber Insurance and Who is Getting It?

Your personal information winds up online for a myriad of reasons. Certain social media sites allow you to post all sorts of information about yourself. Most online businesses collect and store personal information when you sign up to access their site or their goods and services as well. Does your personal information stay safe with these companies?

What Can Happen to Your Data Online?

Providing so much personal information online can be dangerous, as there are some nefarious actors on the world wide web like hackers. Hackers are well aware that your personal information is stored online. Security for your personal data which is stored on these sites is not always optimal. Even within the last year, multiple breaches have occurred leaving the data of ordinary people vulnerable to theft. Almost 10 billion online records from various sources were breached in 2019 alone. This has led insurance companies to offer cyber insurance.

What is Cyber Insurance? 

Cyber insurance or cyber liability insurance is insurance that businesses, like Nationwide, are starting to buy in order to protect themselves financially in case of a data breach. The insurance protects these businesses from financial liability of such an attack. 

Regardless, personal information would still be in the hands of the hacker, but businesses will be covered financially for fees associated with notifying clientele of the breach, legal fees in association with those litigating against the companies for the loss of their data, and fines from potential regulators or governing bodies. But what could you do to be insured from data breaches?

Cyber Insurance is Not Just for Companies 

Cyber insurance can also be used in the event of financial loss of personal data or intellectual property for you or your family. Similar to how car insurance will cover issues arising to a vehicle outside of your control, cyber insurance follows the same principle but for personal data. Some companies, like Chubb, will even allow relocation assistance in the instance of your home address becoming unsafe due to a cyber attack, or threats from the results of doxxing or other online security issues. The increased use of crypto currencies online is another area of concern that cyber insurance has begun to cover.

Cyber Insurance for Crypto Currency 

Certain cyber insurance companies specialize in cryptocurrency. Millions of dollars are lost every year in cryptocurrency exchanges. These currencies, like Bitcoin and others, are increasingly rising in value, and are becoming more standard in the world of online transactions. It is estimated that the combined worth of the crypto market is equivalent to $3 trillion. These companies, such as Coalition, also provide insurance for denial of service (DDoS) attacks and other issues arising with crypto currency business done online. Oversight of online activities such as these is increasing.

General Data Protection Regulation

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) with the specific law number of (EU) 2016/679 is a regulation implemented as a safeguard under the European Union (EU) for the protection of data and privacy. Regulations apply not just in the European Union but in the European Economic Area (EEA) which is anywhere commerce is conducted with an EU member. 

This regulation also seeks to protect personal data as it flows from the EU and EEA into other parts of the world. The whole point of the GDPR is to bolster your control over your own personal data as well as making the regulation of data privacy. No matter where your data goes the GDPR is to provide protection for you and your personal data. That is, if you reside within the EU or EEA.

The GDPR, which was ratified in April of 2016 and was able to be implemented in practice in May of 2018 states it is for, “the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data.” As a regulation it enforces all member states to comply.

Even though the United Kingdom is no longer a member of the EU it still enforces this law. The GDPR also inspired The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) but it is not as thorough as the GDPR and only protects citizens of California. How can you ensure that your personal data is protected?

How humanID Increases Data Protection

Despite the internet feeling like the Wild West, there are ways to prevent a loss of personal data or stopping it from getting into the wrong hands in the first place. humanID allows you to maintain your active online presence without handing over your personal data to anyone, not even humanID’s servers themselves.

What humanID does is take your phone number and creates a unique and anonymous hash. This hash is then used in lieu of exchanging your personal information for identification purposes in order to use these sites. Be on the lookout for sites that implement safe and anonymous login features like humanID. Web developers can save time and money by implementing a secure login for its users, like humanID, which would limit the need for cyber insurance. Until laws and regulations ramp-up to protect you and the businesses you interact with online, humanID is the smart choice for developers to use to keep all your information where it belongs, with yourself.