Cyber Liability · North San Diego
First and third-party cyber liability for SaaS companies, technology service providers, and any business handling client data — built to actually respond when a breach happens, not just check a box.
The Cost of Getting This Wrong
How It Actually Works
First-party coverage pays for costs your business incurs directly from a cyber event — forensics to determine what happened and what was accessed, notification to affected individuals as required by law, credit monitoring, business interruption from the outage, and the cost to restore or rebuild your systems.
Third-party coverage responds when someone else — a customer, a partner, a regulator — brings a claim against you because of the breach, covering defense costs and settlements. A single breach frequently triggers both direct costs and third-party claims at the same time, which is why a complete cyber program includes both sides.
Ransomware coverage has become the most scrutinized part of any cyber policy. Coverage typically includes forensic response, negotiation, and in many cases payment of the ransom itself, plus business interruption and system restoration — but sub-limits, waiting periods, and required security controls vary meaningfully by carrier, and we walk through these terms specifically rather than assuming a policy responds the way you'd expect.
Carrier underwriting has tightened. Multi-factor authentication on email and remote access, endpoint detection and response, and offline or immutable backups have become close to standard requirements for meaningful limits — and some carriers will exclude ransomware entirely if these controls aren't documented.
Common Questions
A cyber liability policy covers the costs that follow a data breach or network security failure. On the first-party side, that means forensic investigation, breach notification to affected individuals, credit monitoring, public relations, business interruption from the outage, and system restoration. On the third-party side, it covers defense costs and settlements when a customer, partner, or regulator brings a claim against you because of the breach. Most technology companies need both first and third-party coverage in a single policy.
Most standard cyber policies cover ransomware, including forensic response, negotiation and payment of the ransom in many cases, business interruption from the outage, and system restoration costs. Coverage details vary meaningfully between carriers, though — sub-limits on ransom payments, waiting periods before business interruption coverage kicks in, and requirements around your security controls, like multi-factor authentication, can all affect how a ransomware claim actually pays out. We review these terms carefully rather than assuming all cyber policies respond the same way.
Almost certainly not. Standard GL policies are built around bodily injury and property damage from premises and operations exposure, and most include a broad cyber exclusion that specifically carves out anything arising from a data breach, unauthorized access, or loss of electronic data. If a breach happens and your only coverage is a GL policy, you should expect the claim to be denied.
It depends on the volume and sensitivity of the data you handle, your revenue, your contractual obligations to customers, and your industry — healthcare and financial data carry higher regulatory exposure than typical B2B SaaS data. We look at your actual data footprint and customer contracts rather than defaulting to a generic limit, since a policy that's too thin on limits defeats the purpose, and a policy that's oversized wastes premium.
Increasingly, yes. Multi-factor authentication on email and remote access, endpoint detection and response, and offline or immutable backups have become close to standard underwriting requirements for cyber carriers, especially for higher limits. Some carriers will decline to write a policy — or will exclude ransomware coverage specifically — if these controls aren't in place. We tell clients upfront what a carrier is going to ask about so there are no surprises during underwriting.
Cyber liability covers the costs that follow a data breach or network security failure. Technology E&O covers professional liability when a client claims your software or service failed to perform as promised and caused them a financial loss, regardless of whether a data breach was involved. Most technology companies need both, and they're often written together in a single package policy.
Related Coverage
Professional liability for when your product or service fails to perform as promised.
Learn More →Protects leadership's personal assets from claims tied to management decisions.
Learn More →See the complete lineup of coverage we build for technology companies.
View Technology Hub →A 30-minute conversation with a CPCU-credentialed broker can change what you're paying and what you're protected against.