In today’s ever‑evolving cyber threat landscape, even the most well‑protected firms in Fort Worth, and surrounding communities are vulnerable. Small and mid‑sized businesses increasingly face ransomware, data breaches, and social engineering attacks, yet many assume their standard policies fully protect them. In most cases, they don’t.

According to a 2023 report by IBM, 43% of cyberattacks target small and mid‑sized businesses, and the average breach cost has climbed to $2.98 million. That kind of loss can devastate local companies.

What Cyber Insurance Typically Covers

First‑Party Coverage

These are costs your business directly incurs as a result of a cyber event.

• Breach Response: This includes the cost of forensic investigations to determine what data was compromised, legal guidance on compliance requirements, customer notification efforts, and credit monitoring for affected individuals. These services are often mandated by laws like the Texas Identity Theft Enforcement and Protection Act.

• Business Interruption: Covers lost revenue due to system downtime caused by a cyber incident. For example, if your business is offline for five days due to a ransomware attack, this coverage compensates you for the revenue you would’ve earned during that period—provided you can document losses.

• Ransomware & Cyber Extortion: Pays the ransom demands (if necessary), legal consultation on whether to pay, and professional negotiators. It also covers costs of decryption tools and restoration services—especially critical as ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) groups like LockBit target small U.S. businesses.

• Data Restoration: Covers the cost of recovering corrupted or encrypted data. This often involves data recovery specialists and could include rebuilding entire databases or software systems.

• Reputation Management: Provides access to crisis PR firms that help manage your company’s public image following a breach. This might include press releases, media coordination, and online reputation repair.

Third‑Party Liability

These costs arise when others hold your business responsible for a cyber incident.

• Privacy Liability: Covers legal costs if customer or employee data is stolen or exposed. This includes defense against lawsuits and regulatory investigations, particularly from HIPAA or GDPR regulators.

• Media Liability: Protects against defamation, copyright infringement, or intellectual property violations arising from your online content—critical if your website or social media accounts are compromised and publish unauthorized material.

• Legal Defense & Settlements: Pays attorney fees, court costs, and settlement amounts tied to covered incidents. For example, if you’re sued by a vendor whose data was compromised through your network, this clause activates.

• Regulatory Fines: Some policies offer limited coverage for fines and penalties assessed by regulatory bodies like the FTC or HHS, though coverage often depends on whether the fine is insurable under state law.

What Isn’t Covered

Negligence or Poor Cyber Hygiene

If you fail to implement fundamental protections like multi-factor authentication (MFA), endpoint detection, or timely software patching, insurers may deny your claim. Most policies now require businesses to attest to a minimum level of cyber hygiene.

Pre‑Existing or Ongoing Incidents

If you purchase a policy after you’ve already discovered suspicious activity—or knew you had vulnerabilities and didn’t address them—those events likely won’t be covered.

State‑Sponsored or War‑Related Attacks

Many policies include a “war exclusion” clause, which can void coverage for attacks attributed to nation-states. This has caused issues with ransomware attacks like NotPetya, where attribution is murky. Some insurers now offer riders for nation-state attribution coverage.

Insider Threats

Most policies do not automatically cover malicious acts by employees unless a specific endorsement is included. This includes theft of data, fraud, or sabotage by current or former staff.

Reputational Damage & Future Lost Revenue

While some policies include crisis communication support, they typically don’t reimburse for long-term losses like loss of customer trust, brand value, or market share.

Social Engineering Fraud

Phishing attacks, invoice fraud, and executive impersonation scams (BEC) are rarely covered under standard policies. Separate “social engineering fraud” riders are often needed—and typically only pay out if strict verification protocols were followed.

Physical Hardware Upgrades

Cyber insurance won’t pay for post-breach hardware upgrades—such as replacing old firewalls, routers, or workstations—unless damage was physically caused by the attack, which is rare.

Choosing the Right Policy

Here’s how Fort Worth businesses can ensure better coverage:

1. Balance Cyber Hygiene with Coverage

   Conduct regular risk assessments and meet common insurer requirements like endpoint protection, encryption, and MFA. Consider CMMC or CIS Controls as baseline frameworks.

2. Enrich Your Policy with Riders

   Add-ons for social engineering, dependent systems failures, and cloud data breaches help fill dangerous gaps.

3. Clarify War & State‑Sponsor Exclusions

   Ask your broker: “Is there coverage if attribution to a nation-state cannot be confirmed?” Some policies are now offering conditional coverage.

4. Match Coverage to Local Risk

   Construction, legal, and healthcare firms in Texas often hold sensitive data. Ensure your liability limits reflect your regulatory exposure and contractual obligations.

5. Prepare for Claims Ahead of Time

   Create a cyber incident response plan, document it, and test it annually. Insurers expect a defined process, designated response team, and third-party partners in place before a breach occurs.

How Inman Technologies Supports Your Cyber & Insurance Strategy

We provide Fort Worth-area businesses with:

• Cybersecurity Hardening: 24/7 endpoint protection, firewall management, vulnerability scanning, and Microsoft 365 security best practices implementation.

• Risk Assessment & Policy Alignment: We evaluate your current environment, help you meet insurer requirements, and guide your broker conversations to avoid costly exclusions.

• Incident Readiness: From playbooks to vendor coordination (legal, forensic, PR), we help you meet time-sensitive policy reporting requirements.

• Insurance Vendor Partnerships: Through our network, we can introduce you to providers offering comprehensive and transparent cyber insurance tailored to small businesses.

Final Thought

Cyber insurance isn’t just a financial safety net—it’s a business resilience strategy. But policies only work when they’re built on top of proactive cybersecurity practices.

If you’re a business owner in Fort Worth or nearby communities and aren’t sure what your policy really covers, let’s talk.

📞 Book a free cyber risk review with Inman Technologies today—and bring peace of mind to your policy.