Cyber Insurance Cost: 2024 Customer Prices | Insureon (2024)

Small businesses pay an average premium of $145 per month, or about $1,740 annually, for cyber insurance.

Our figures are sourced from the median cost of policies purchased by Insureon customers from leading insurance companies. The median offers a better estimate of what your business is likely to pay because it excludes outlier high and low premiums.

While Insureon's small business customers pay an average of $145 monthly for a cyber insurance policy, 38% pay less than $100 per month and 33% pay between $100 and $200 per month.

The cost varies for small businesses depending on their risks and the coverage they choose.

As with other types of insurance, your provider calculates your cyber insurance premium based on a number of factors, including:

• Your policy limits and deductible
• Cyber threats in your industry
• Type of cyber insurance purchased
• Amount of sensitive information handled
• Number of employees
• History of insurance claims

Chat with a licensed insurance agent if you're unsure which coverage options to choose.

Businesses that face higher risks may choose to pay more for higher policy limits. Overall, the amount of cyber liability coverage your business needs depends on your industry, your type of business, and the type of customer data you handle.

Cyber liability insurance policies have two limits, which typically range from $1 million to $5 million:

• Per-occurrence limit. While the policy is active, the insurer will pay up to this amount to cover any single claim.
• Aggregate limit. During the lifetime of the policy (usually one year), this is the maximum the insurer will pay to cover claims.

The average deductible for a cyber liability policy is $2,500 for Insureon customers. A higher deductible results in a lower premium, but make sure it's an amount you can easily afford. If you can’t pay for it in a crisis, your insurance won’t activate to cover your claim.

Most businesses only need first-party cyber liability insurance, also called data breach insurance, to defend against cyber risks at their own business. The cost depends on how much customer information they handle, such as credit card numbers or Social Security numbers.

Cybersecurity companies, network security companies, IT consultants, and other businesses that are responsible for their clients' cybersecurity can expect to pay more for cyber insurance coverage. They usually need third-party cyber coverage, which pays for legal costs if a client blames their business for failing to prevent a cyber incident.

Depending on the industry that you work in, such as construction or cannabis, you may be required by your state to carry other types of insurance, most often general liability insurance. For businesses that offer services, such as those in real estate, insurance, or healthcare, you may need professional liability insurance (also called errors and omissions insurance) before you can get a license.

Many small businesses forgo insurance because they assume they’re at low risk for cybercrime. However, cybercriminals often target small businesses as they have fewer resources to protect themselves.

Here's how these costs can escalate at a small business:

• A hacker brings down the software that a company relies on for customer transactions. The company misses three business days of work while the software is unavailable. Cyber liability insurance can pay for the business interruption caused by the outage.
• A cybersecurity consultant is sued for failing to prevent a ransomware attack on a client. The consultant has to pay the cyber extortion demand required to recover the client's data, on top of legal defense costs.
• A data breach exposes the personal information of hundreds of customers at a small retail shop. The retailer has to pay for a credit monitoring service for all those customers for several years, as well as any costs associated with the state-required notification for each customer. They may also have to invest in a public relations campaign to help fix their reputation.

As you can see, cyber insurance is an important part of risk management for any business that handles sensitive information.

Cyber liability insurance costs vary based on several factors. In addition to choosing lower coverage limits, these tips can help keep costs down:

Bundle your insurance policies. Businesses can often save money by bundling policies purchased from the same insurance provider.

For example, tech companies often choose to buy technology errors and omissions insurance, also called tech E&O. This policy bundles errors and omissions insurance with cyber liability insurance to protect against lawsuits related to mistakes, including failure to prevent a data breach on a client's system.

Pay the annual premium upfront. You can usually choose to pay your cyber liability insurance premium in monthly or annual installments. While it’s tempting to go with monthly payments because they require less cash upfront, many insurance companies offer businesses a discount for paying the entire annual premium at once.

Manage your cyber liability risks. If your small business has no cyber liability claims history, you could save money on your premium. You can also save money by implementing security measures at your business. For example, you might:

• Routinely change your business’s account passwords
• Invest in secure equipment and software
• Teach employees to recognize and avoid malware and phishing attempts
• Implement multi-factor authentication for employees

Insureon is the #1 independent agency for online delivery of small business insurance. We help business owners compare quotes from top-rated providers, buy policies, and manage coverage online.

By completing Insureon’s easy online application today, you can compare free quotes for cybersecurity insurance and other policies from top-rated U.S. insurance companies. Once you find the right policies for your small business, you can begin coverage in less than 24 hours and get a certificate of insurance for your small business.