For many modern organizations, the most valuable assets are no longer physical. They are digital.
These assets can represent years of investment and millions in potential future revenue. A cyberattack that compromises them can create consequences that go far beyond the cost of repairing a computer.
What is intellectual property cyber risk?
Intellectual property cyber risk refers to the risk that cyber incidents could compromise, steal, destroy, expose or disrupt access to valuable proprietary information. This can include:
Cyberattacks can expose these assets through several routes.
How IP is compromised
Ransomware
Ransomware can prevent an organization from accessing critical information and systems. Even where data is not permanently destroyed, the interruption can create significant operational and financial consequences.
Credential compromise
A compromised employee or administrator account can provide attackers with access to highly sensitive systems.
Cloud exposure
Cloud platforms can contain enormous amounts of intellectual property. Misconfiguration, compromised credentials or excessive permissions can increase exposure significantly.
Third party risk
An organization's intellectual property may also be accessible to suppliers, technology providers, contractors and other third parties. A security incident at one of those organizations can create consequences for the company that owns the data.
Cybersecurity protects IP. Cyber insurance can help transfer some of the financial risk.
Strong cybersecurity controls should remain the first line of defense. Organizations should implement appropriate access controls, monitoring, security awareness, vulnerability management, backup strategies and incident response capabilities.
But no cybersecurity program can guarantee that an incident will never occur. Cyber insurance can provide another layer of risk management.
The question is whether the insurer understands what is actually at risk.
What should companies consider when insuring intellectual property?
Identify the critical assets
Before purchasing coverage, determine which digital assets are genuinely critical to the business. Not all data has the same value.
Understand the consequences of loss
“What happens if this information is stolen?”
“What happens if it becomes publicly available?”
“What happens if employees cannot access it?”
“What happens if an attacker modifies it?”
“What happens if a competitor obtains it?”
These questions help translate technology risk into business risk.
What should you ask your cyber insurer?
How do you assess our technology risk?
How do you understand our critical digital assets?
What coverage applies to business interruption?
What incident response costs are covered?
What legal and regulatory costs are covered?
What exclusions apply?
What security controls are required?
How is cyber risk evaluated during underwriting?
Who provides the cybersecurity expertise behind your cyber insurance?
Where Barbon fits
Barbon is a specialist technology risk intelligence company focused on the intersection of cybersecurity and insurance. Barbon helps bring cybersecurity expertise into the insurance industry.
For organizations whose most valuable assets are digital, this distinction matters. An insurer needs to understand the financial consequences of cyber risk. But understanding those consequences starts with understanding the technology environment that creates the risk.
Barbon helps provide that specialist technology risk perspective.
Cyber insurance should understand the asset it is protecting
If a company has millions of dollars invested in source code, confidential information or proprietary technology, its cyber insurance strategy should be considered alongside the systems and controls protecting those assets. That means understanding:
Your most valuable asset may be digital. Your insurance should understand that.
Cyber risk is not simply about computers. It is about the business value that depends on those computers. Barbon is helping connect that technology risk with the insurance industry.
Start by understanding the risk. Then choose an insurer that understands it too.
Ask whether your insurer partners with Barbon.