Businesses face threats from all corners and have been insuring against them for centuries, since the very first policy offering for the underwriting of commercial ventures became available. A lot has changed since then, but in addition to the variety of coverage available, so too has grown the strength and diversity of perils. Unfortunately, this is more true in 2020 than ever before. For this reason we’re here with a guide to the new and growing concerns that your SMB or large business needs to insure against, starting today.
3 New and Expanding Threats That Commercial Enterprises in BC Need to Get Coverage for in 2020 and Beyond
The Evolution of Cyber Crime
Park has led the way in cyber crime insurance prevention for BC businesses from the moment we introduced our cyber policy. We have been updating our clients and the entire commercial sector about new phishing schemes to data privacy regulatory compliance updates. We wish it could stop at that, but as we dig deeper into 2020 things have become even more dire as cyber criminals become more advanced and highly targeted.
Look to the massive LifeLabs hack at the end of 2019 as an example. Cyber criminals are confirming that key industries are hot targets, going after health and medical businesses due to the large database of personal and highly sensitive information that their data warehousing holds. However, any business that stores a significant amount of data for local, provincial, national, and even international parties, be they your customers, clients, or third party vendors, is at risk. LifeLabs failure to protect against and report these hacks has cost them dearly, but as a large enterprise they will weather the storm. Does your business have the financial resources to do the same?
Data storage is one thing, but new cyber threats are expanding further as hackers find new ways to enter your IT systems, targeting IoT web-enabled devices that range from company vehicles and security cameras to HVAC and lighting. Moving forward, a major part of your IT disaster recovery plan should factor in more robust cyber crime insurance.
The Truth About Climate Change
Climate change is no new concept. But, by the end of 2019 the most staunch critics, those who thought it to be an overblown media-purported ruse to sell more reusable Starbucks cups have changed their tune. Even Trump has reversed his opinion – if that’s not a wake up call to businesses we don’t know what is!
Climate change is real and BC has grievously become a poster child for this fact. In our recent article about the Top 5 Weather Events of 2019 we discussed the financial ramifications for residents who remain unprepared by not securing more comprehensive homeowners’ insurance. Consider their risk to be a fraction of yours, because your business, livelihood, and livelihood of staff and stakeholders is being threatened when you don’t review your coverage to consider damaging weather events.
The Stress of Health and Wellness
Your company depends upon human resources to turn a profit. When executives and staff fall ill your business’ capacity to be productive may slow or come to screeching halt in some cases. With a variety of nationwide health concerns rearing their head in 2020 this threat has grown significantly. You way be wondering why this point is being discussed in a commercial insurance blog versus a health and wellness periodical, but the topics are not so far removed.
For example, in BC employers can dismiss staff if they miss too much work because of an illness. However, this does not prevent a terminated employee from taking a business owner or executive to claims court for wrongful dismissal, especially if they feel the dismissal was rooted in some sort of discrimination. Or, an employee (terminated or otherwise) may feel that their illness was born from failure to remedy a safety or environmental hazard in the workplace. In either case (and many more) company directors and officers bear significant risk that may require coverage by directors and officers liability insurance.
Contact Park Insurance for a comprehensive assessment of your commercial policy and to find out how you may increase coverage to protect against the threats addressed above, and beyond.