Cyber Data Insurance: Food For Thought

Accidents happen!  Restaurant owners have to pay close attention to the many facets of insurance protection from workers’ compensation to theft, fire protection and many others, however, many owners would argue that liability protection has the greatest possibility to shut the doors.  Liability is not measurable.  If your building were to burn down to the ground, you can measure what it will cost to rebuild.  There is hidden responsibility in your liability protection that could make you susceptible if a lawsuit arises.

It will not take long for a restaurant owner to face some come kind of liability claim. Regardless of how well you have trained your employees, you can’t keep people from claiming food poisoning, chipping a tooth on an olive pit or falling off the curb.  When restaurants offer alcohol to their menu, the risk of a liability claim greatly increase. Now factor in Cyber Liability.

Cyber liability is a new area of liability that restaurant owners face.  As more customer information is collected and stored by restaurants, the greater the chance of a data breach. Let’s discuss three common mistakes restaurant owners make in this segment of risk management.

Thinking your IT person has you protected by firewalls.

This is a false sense of security.  Many times the data breach comes honestly from within your own team of employees, by simply opening up a hacked email, downloading malware or throwing away files in the dumpster with sensitive customer information can cause a major security problem.  No matter how well you screen your employees, you can never guarantee the character of any employee.  Theft unfortunately happens.  Your employees play a large role in your cyber security.

Thinking your general liability policy has you covered.

Most restaurant owners purchase insurance policies that have general liability component built into their policy.  Sadly, they are mistaken when it comes to cyber liability damage loss.  Your general liability insurance policy alone does not protect you from loss or damage.  You must purchase cyber liability insurance for this protection.

Thinking your credit card company vendor is responsible for cyber data breaches.

This is probably the biggest misconception of all.  As the restaurant owner you are still responsible for protecting your customer’s information as it passes through your system.

Cyber liability happens without warning and can leave you with an enormous financial responsibility as well as damage to your restaurant’s reputation. If you would like to learn more about cyber liability or have general questions regarding your existing policies, please call us at  (706) 991-9832.