Cyber Liability Insurance
Protect your pet business from the cost of phishing scams, data theft, and ransomware with cyber liability coverage. If a hacker steals client information from you, this coverage helps pay for data breach lawsuits, identity recovery costs, and other expenses to make things right.
Benefits of Cyber Liability Insurance
Running a pet business usually involves storing or processing clients’ sensitive info online, everything from credit card numbers to pet vaccination records. If a hacker cracks your cloud storage security or tricks you with a phishing email, it could be your legal responsibility to pay for the fallout.
Here’s how cyber coverage for pet businesses, aka data breach insurance, helps you work online safely.
- Covers up to $100k/year for issues like data breaches, ransomware, and phishing, with higher limits available
- Helps you bounce back from costs after an attack (like public relations and notifying clients)
- Steps in to cover your responsibility to clients because of an attack (like data recovery)
- Protects your business online for less than the cost of a chew toy per month
Real Cyber Risks for Pet Care Professionals
Hackers are experts at breaking into accounts and secure storage. But, more often, they trick you into letting them in or take advantage of simple mistakes. Cyber liability insurance from PCI is designed to guard your finances in situations like these.
Covered.
Cyber Insurance for Pet Businesses Explained
What Is Cyber Liability Insurance?
Cyber liability insurance is a type of coverage that protects your business from paying for its own and others’ losses in the event of a cyber attack. Common cyber crimes that insurance can cover include:
- Data breaches
- Malware
- Cyber extortion (aka ransomware)
- Phishing
- Social engineering attacks (like targeted social media DMs and emails)
- And much more
Who Needs Cyber Liability Insurance?
Pet professionals, from solo dog walkers to grooming salon owners, are vulnerable to a hacker using your online presence to steal from you or your clients. Pet care requires managing more sensitive data than you think — a pet sitter might hold house alarm codes, while a boarder often keeps emergency contacts on file.
You are legally responsible for protecting any sensitive information you collect. If you do any of these business activities online, cyber liability insurance is for you:
- You store sensitive customer information online or on your device
- You process digital payments and scheduling requests
- You collect info from clients on your website or social media
- You send, accept, or store any of these digitally: credit card details, alarm codes, emergency contacts, vaccination records, travel schedules, signed service contracts, staff payroll data, or other forms that reveal protected information
What Does Cyber Liability Insurance Cover for Pet Care Businesses?
Cyber coverage from PCI can cover expenses to your business and others that come from a cyber attack against you.
Coverage for your business includes:
- Forensic fees to find out how the breach happened and what was leaked
- Client notification costs
- Ransomware payments
- Crisis management and public relations
- Recovering and restoring data and systems
- Payment Card Industry Data Security
- (PCI-DSS) penalties (this PCI stands for Payment Credit Information, not Pet Care Insurance. Of the two, we’re much more fun.)
- Business interruption costs
- Financial fraud
It can also pay for your legal liability to others because of the attack, including:
- Unintended disclosure of personal information
- Credit monitoring for impacted people
- Identity recovery costs
- Regulatory fines and penalties
- Lawsuit settlement costs and court judgments
- Attorney fees
Doesn’t My Point of Sale (POS) Provider Cover This for Me?
Your pay portal or POS company (like PayPal or Square) only protects what happens inside their system. Your business probably also uses email, phones, laptops, scheduling tools, cloud folders, and client intake forms. If a cyber attack starts anywhere outside of the POS platform (which is far more common in small pet businesses), their coverage doesn’t apply.
You’re also legally responsible for the client data you collect. So, even if a POS system causes the breach, you still have to manage the fallout. That can include notifying clients, hiring IT forensics, covering legal review fees, or eating the lost profits while you’re shut down. Cyber coverage provides a response team and financial protection to help you navigate the situation.
How Much Does Cyber Liability Insurance Cost?
Cyber liability insurance costs just $6.58/month at PCI for $100,000 of coverage You can also choose a $250,000 cyber insurance limit for $12.50/month.
Consider how that stacks up against the cost of a cyber attack. An IBM study found that the average cost of a cyberattack for a business is about $309 per compromised record. If a hacker accesses many records per client and multiple clients, even a data breach for a small business racks up serious costs fast. Cyber insurance is an affordable way to limit your risk.
Coverage Details & Limits
Get cyber liability insurance designed for your business’ online risks. Like your PCI base policy’s coverage details, cyber liability has a few sublimits (maximum amounts it will pay for certain types of cybercrime response). Click the info buttons to learn more
Limits of Insurance
General Liability Coverage
The most your policy will pay in a 12 month policy period for bodily injury and property damage claims that you become legally obligated to pay due to your business services.
Limit per Incident: $1,000,000
Limit per Year: $2,000,000
Animal Liability Limit
The most your policy will pay in a year for bodily injuries and property damage to others because of an animal in your care
Limit per Incident: $100,000
Limit per Year: $200,000
Products-Completed Operations Aggregate Limit
The maximum amount your policy will pay in a 12-month period for bodily injury and property damage claims that result from the products you use to perform your services.
Personal and Advertising Injury Limit
The amount that your policy will pay for claims arising out of one or more of the following offenses:
- False arrest, detention or imprisonment
- Malicious prosecution
- Wrongful eviction or wrongful entry
- Oral or written publications that slander or libel a person or organization
- Oral or written publication or material that violates a person’s right of privacy
- The use of another’s advertising idea in your advertisement
Each Occurrence Limit
The maximum your policy will pay for a bodily injury or property damage claim that you become legally obligated to pay due to your business services.
$1,000,000
Damage to Premises Rented to You Limit
Applies to damage by fire to premises rented to the insured; also applies to damage regardless of cause to premises (including contents) occupied by the insured for 7 days or less.
Any One Premises: $100,000
Medical Expense Limit
A general liability coverage that reimburses others, without regard to the insured’s liability, for medical or funeral expenses incurred by such persons as a result of bodily injury or death sustained by accident under the conditions specified in the policy.
Any One Person: $5,000
Pet Protection (Animal Bailee) – Animals in Your Care, Custody, or Control
This provides your pet business with coverage in the event that you are legally liable for injuries or damages sustained by an animal in your care, custody, or control.
Limit per Incident: $2,500
Limit per Year: $5,000
Veterinarian Expense Reimbursement (Regardless of Fault)
This provides coverage for medical expenses—regardless of who is at fault—for a client’s pet in your care, custody, or control.
Limit per Incident: $1,000
Limit per Year: $2,500
Deductible: $250
Lost Key Liability Coverage
If you were to lose the keys to a client’s residence, this coverage could help you manage the cost of installing new locks or having the building rekeyed.
Limit per Year: $2,000
Optional Coverage
Cyber Liability Coverage
Limit Per Year: $100,000
Limit Per Year: $250,000
Cyber Event Costs
Cyber event costs include: call center, notification, forensics, credit, monitoring, public relations, and associated legal expenses
$100k Policy Limit Per Year: $25,000
$250k Policy Limit per Year: $50,000
Ransom Loss
$100k Policy Limit Per Year: $10,000
$250k Policy Limit per Year: $10,000
Cyber Deception
Cyber deception includes: fraudulent instruction, fund transfer fraud, and telephone fraud
$100k Policy Limit Per Year: $10,000
$250k Policy Limit per Year: $10,000
Data Restoration
Data restoration coverage is available at no extra cost with the $250k limit option. Data restoration includes: repair, replacement, or restoration costs for digital data, programs, or software that were damaged, stolen, or encrypted by a cyberattack
$100k Policy Limit Per Year: —
$250k Policy Limit per Year: $10,000
Deductible
$1,000
Please note these are brief definitions of coverage. Your policy may be more restrictive in its language. Refer to the actual policy for a complete description of coverages and exclusions.
Get Cyber Liability Coverage Today
Safeguard your business and your clients online with coverage designed for you.
Cyber Liability Insurance FAQs
Businesses aren’t legally required to carry data breach insurance, but it’s hard for many to survive a serious cyber attack without it. If you collect clients’ sensitive information, it’s your responsibility to keep it safe. That means that, without insurance, you can be legally responsible for paying thousands (or more) if it is stolen while in your possession.
Cyber liability insurance is definitely worth it for pet businesses of any size. Digital payments, web booking, and online communication have become key to growing a client base in pet care. Unfortunately, they all leave you open to hackers trying to use you to get to your clients. Cyber insurance has your back so you can run your business responsibly online.
Unsure about insurance in general? Learn more about how to get coverage and why it’s worth it for pet professionals.
Just like any policy, cyber liability insurance isn’t designed to cover everything. Different cyber policies have their own conditions, but PCI’s cyber liability excludes the following:
- Anything on our list of exclusions
- Illegal or fraudulent activities you commit
- Failure to meet and maintain basic security standards
- War or terrorism
- Cyber attacks that happened before your policy was active
- Bodily injury, property damage, or other risks covered by your PCI general liability policy
Submitting a cyber liability claim is simple with PCI. Here’s the process:
- Log in to your PCI user dashboard
- Go to the “Manage Policies” section
- Click “File a Claim”
- Fill out the form and hit submit
That’s it! A representative will reach out to you in 24-48 hours to talk you through the next steps.
See What Else We Cover
PCI shields your pet business, online and off. Check out other ways we protect you from nose to tail.
