NUA Insurance Agents & Brokers is looking to target up to 3,000 clients following the launch of its cyber liability insurance coverage -- a product that offers businesses protection from cyber attacks and other online exposures, such as e-theft.
The company, which is the first to launch this type of coverage, held its launch at the British Colonial Hilton Hotel recently, where a cross section of the business and insurance community got an opportunity to learn more about the product.
The launch is timely given that National Security Minister Dr. Bernard Nottage recently expressed concerns about cybercrime and announced his government's plan to strengthen the appropriate legislation.
NUA Assistant Managing Director Stanford Charlton said his company had been closely monitoring similar hacking and cyber attacks that are happening internationally and felt it was time to introduce the product to the Bahamian market.
Over the Christmas holiday, hackers stole the credit and debit card information of millions of Target's customers. The U.S. retailer is now facing a string of lawsuits over its data breach.
"We said if it can happen in Europe, Asia, the United States and other places, it's at our doorsteps. We need to take this thing seriously and bring it here. We follow closely what happens in the United States. Once the claims start to happen there, people will look at The Bahamas as an easy target, so we realized that we had to bring that insurance product here," said Charlton.
Charlton indicated that if a company's IT system is breached and its clients' personal information is accessed, it may face stiff fines or penalties under the Data Protection Act, in instances where adequate safeguards were not in place to prevent the breach. Cyber liability insurance gives cover for these fines.
NUA Managing Director Warren Rolle said since the launch NUA has gotten "quite a number of inquiries from a number of our competitors".
"So, we're pretty sure that they are going to follow suit at some point," he said.
Charlton explained that NUA's staff underwent extensive training over several weeks to become familiar with the product.
NUA later invited Charles Juarbe, divisional director of global insurance broker, FINEX Global & Willis Limited, to discuss the coverage during the launch.
Rolle indicated that there have been a number of sessions with Willis, including a recent online webinar, to acclimate staff to the new product. He said he is confident that NUA is ready for a successful launch of this product.
Charlton said NUA has gotten positive feedback ever since it announced plans to launch its newest product.
"I have been getting calls non-stop asking about cyber liability insurance and when I explain what it covers and what some of the ramifications of computer hacking are clients want to know more. This was a timely presentation and I hope it sensitizes the public to knowing and understanding that they need to get this insurance," he said.
"We are live with the facility, so, when clients call us we can give quotes within 20-25 minutes once they provide us with information on their turnover, the number of employees and what limits they want, they can get quotations back quickly."
Juarbe said his company decided to partner with NUA because the company has a "strong presence" in The Bahamas.
"They know their clientele, they know what they're looking for in terms of boots on the ground and they're going to know what their clients are looking for. At Willis we're very proud to have partnered with NUA in getting this facility done because people do need the protection . . . and as the minister said, the cyber threats are coming."
Juarbe advised companies who are dealing with their customers' sensitive data to be careful when selecting outside vendors.
"As a company, you have to ask yourself two questions -- one, are you managing the IT system and two, are you outsourcing that IT system. That's the difference. Sometimes you have a company like a restaurant, and you have the owner in the back but he's only just plugging information in, in terms of profits and sales, but who is providing that point of sale system or payment providing system? That's not going to be them, that's an outsourced vendor. Then what you need to do is question that outsource vendor: do you have the firewalls, the antivirus systems to make sure you're providing adequate coverage for me because even though the restaurant is going to get coverage, they also need to make sure that the outsource provider is providing them that same protection as well. People need to know the answer because the risks and the losses are real," he said.
Juarbe also noted that there is a minimum and maximum revenue requirement when it comes to securing cyber liability insurance with NUA.
"So, if your company is making $200 million in gross revenues and more than $30 million in net profit, obviously you'd be too big for the facility. But, that doesn't mean that you can't get coverage. What we could do is go to open market, access other markets to get quotations for you," he said.
"To be excluded from the cyber facility there'd have to be a risk that we'd have to say is beyond the regular small medium enterprise risk. There are some classes of business that will fall out obviously because of the higher risk that they have, such as financial institutions or hospitals or technology companies. But does that mean that we can't get them coverage? Absolutely not. We can get them coverage and we can get them whatever limit that they're looking for."
According to Charlton, the cost of the cover is dependent on the type of business, its annual turnover and the number of employees it has. Coverage ranges from $250,000 up to $2 million.
"Premiums are quite reasonable, $412 for $1 million coverage for certain companies," he said. "It's a quick process. We promise that you will be in and out as long as we have the right information," Charlton said.

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