Does Your Cyber Policy Cover What You Need? - Florida Hospital ... - South Florida Hospital News

Does Your Cyber Policy Cover What You Need? - Florida Hospital ... - South Florida Hospital News

Bill Gompers, CFE


By Vanessa Orr


In January 2023, T-Mobile announced that 37 million customers’ accounts had been breached by hackers, despite having gone through extensive cybersecurity measures after a previous breach had occurred. What this shows, unfortunately, is that even the largest companies can be at risk of cybercrime—which is why healthcare providers should, in addition to risk management measures, make sure that they’re covered with comprehensive cyber policies.


“When you talk about cybercrimes, healthcare is always among the top five industries targeted,” said Bill Gompers, CFE, vice president, Risk Strategies Company | Danna-Gracey. “They have a large amount of personal information, and it’s often fairly easy for hackers to get in.”


Cybercrime usually takes one of three forms, which most cyber policies cover, according to Gompers. This includes ransomware requests in which a hacker encrypts a practice’s files and won’t unlock them until paid a ransom, and wire fraud and social engineering, in which funds are transferred to someone pretending to be someone else within the company.


“For example, the chief financial officer gets an email from the company’s CEO saying that they need to pay XYZ company $50,000, with an attached invoice,” said Gompers, “only that email is not from the real CEO.”


Hackers can also gain access to employees’ emails or breach the employer network through a process known as phishing.


What many healthcare professionals do not realize, however, is that not all cyber policies are the same, and they may not be adequately covered.


“Policies have a dollar amount listed for each claim and an aggregate amount of coverage for the year, but most also have sub-limits for various exposures,” said Gompers, noting that the limits and sub-limits aggregate is usually ..

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