Call us today: 720-800-9495
Call us today: 720-800-9495
Cyber insurance (also called cyber liability insurance) pays for the costs a business faces after a data breach, ransomware attack, or cyber fraud event, including incident response, lost income, legal defense, and regulatory costs. Mountainside Insurance Management is an independent insurance brokerage in Thornton, Colorado that shops cyber coverage across 40+ admitted and E&S (excess and surplus) carriers for Colorado and multi-state businesses.
The last several years have seen criminals employing more sophisticated methods to steal data from businesses for monetary gain. Indeed every business is at risk of a cyber loss – from professionals working remotely to the construction industry, which handles vast amounts of information including employee data, credit card information and intellectual property. In addition to large enterprises, small and midsize companies are vulnerable to data breaches, phishing tactics and social engineering designed to trick employees into erroneously wire transferring money and hold a business’s computer network hostage until money is paid.
Mountainside Insurance Management offers cost-effective, tailored Cyber Liability solutions that respond to today’s evolving threats that can potentially compromise a company’s customer and employee data, shut down an operation by infecting its network system, and damage a firm’s reputation.
It’s important to note that no two Cyber policies are the same and should be tailored to fit your business’s specific exposures. In general, Cyber Liability insurance can be designed to cover the costs that come with a data breach, including forensic analysis of your data and systems, notification to all affected parties, credit monitoring, crisis management and PR, business interruption as a result of the breach, regulatory investigation and fines and penalties, and legal defense and liability should you be sued by a third party. A policy can also be designed to include ransomware and social engineering, too. In addition, Business Interruption insurance can be included to cover loss of income as a direct result of the cyber event.
Our staff will review your exposures and determine the right policy for your business.
No two cyber policies are identical. We compare policy wordings, sub-limits, retentions, and exclusions side by side so you know exactly what you are buying.
Any business that uses email, accepts electronic payments, stores customer or employee data, or relies on computers to operate has cyber exposure. Mountainside places cyber coverage for:
Many commercial contracts, general contractors, and vendors now require proof of cyber coverage. We can issue certificates of insurance quickly once coverage is bound.
Colorado has one of the strictest breach notification timelines in the country. Under Colorado law (C.R.S. 6-1-716), a business that discovers a breach of Colorado residents’ personal information generally must notify affected residents within 30 days, and must also notify the Colorado Attorney General when 500 or more Colorado residents are affected. Businesses may also have obligations under the Colorado Privacy Act, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, or the laws of other states where their customers live.
Meeting these deadlines requires attorneys, forensic investigators, and notification vendors on day one. A cyber insurance policy gives you access to a pre-approved incident response team and pays those costs, which is often the difference between a manageable event and a business-ending one.
Cyber carriers ask detailed security questions before they quote. Strong controls improve eligibility and can lower premiums. Expect questions about:
Our team walks you through the application, explains each question in plain English or Spanish, and points out simple fixes that can make your business easier to insure.
Cyber liability typically covers costs from a data breach or cyberattack, including forensic investigation, customer notification, credit monitoring, legal fees, regulatory fines (where insurable), and business interruption from a network outage. Many policies also cover cyber extortion and ransomware payments, subject to policy terms.
Generally, no. Most General Liability policies exclude or sharply limit coverage for data breaches and cyber incidents, and many now include explicit cyber exclusions. A standalone cyber liability policy is typically needed to cover the specific costs associated with a breach or cyberattack.
Yes. Small and mid-sized businesses are frequent targets specifically because they often have weaker security defenses than larger companies while still holding valuable customer and payment data. Attackers increasingly use automated tools that don’t discriminate by company size.
First-party coverage reimburses your own direct costs from an incident, like breach response, business interruption, and system restoration. Third-party coverage covers claims and legal costs if customers, vendors, or other parties sue you because their data was compromised through your systems.
Many cyber policies do cover ransomware extortion payments along with the associated negotiation and forensic costs, but coverage terms, sub-limits, and requirements (like mandatory use of an approved incident response vendor) vary significantly by carrier, so it’s worth reviewing the specific policy language.
Insurers increasingly require or reward specific security controls, like multi-factor authentication, employee security training, regular data backups, and endpoint detection software, when underwriting cyber policies. Demonstrating strong security practices can both improve your eligibility and lower your premium.
Cyber insurance premiums are based on your annual revenue, industry, the type and volume of data you hold, the limits and deductible you choose, and your security controls. Businesses with multi-factor authentication, endpoint detection, and tested backups typically qualify for better pricing. Mountainside compares quotes from multiple carriers to find the best value for your business.
Many cyber policies can include social engineering and funds transfer fraud coverage, which reimburses money lost when a criminal impersonates a vendor, customer, or executive to redirect a payment. This coverage is often sub-limited and some carriers place it on a crime policy instead, so it should be reviewed carefully. Carriers usually require a call-back verification procedure before changing payment instructions.
Yes. Your business is still responsible for the customer and employee data you collect, even when it is stored with a cloud provider. Stolen passwords, compromised email accounts, and cloud service outages are common causes of cyber losses, and cyber insurance can cover breach response, lost income, and liability from those events.
Yes. Contractors and trucking companies are frequent targets of payment fraud and ransomware because they move large payments and depend on software for estimating, dispatch, and ELDs. Many general contractors, shippers, and brokers now require proof of cyber coverage in their contracts.
Colorado does not require most businesses to carry cyber insurance by law, but Colorado businesses must notify affected residents within 30 days of determining a data breach occurred. Contracts, lenders, and clients increasingly require cyber coverage, and the policy pays for the legal, forensic, and notification costs needed to comply.
Yes. Mountainside Insurance Management provides full bilingual service in English and Spanish, including explaining applications, quotes, and policy terms. Call (720) 800-9495 to speak with our team.
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