SBI General launches cyber defence insurance for businesses

SBI General Insurance on Monday said it has launched a product to protect businesses from financial and reputational losses due to cyber attacks.

In the initial phase, the focus will be on SMEs and mid-market businesses, but later the product can cater to larger business conglomerates as well, the insurer said in a statement.

This offers protection against the growing threat of cyber breaches and is designed to protect against major insurable cyber exposures like hacking attacks, identity theft, disclosure of sensitive information and business interruption.

"Over the years, digital advancement has exponentially increased cyber risk exposures for almost all types and sizes of businesses. Cyber attackers work on the theory that majority of the businesses do not spend adequately on shoring up their cyber security," it said.

They work on the presumption that cyberattack techniques that have been used on large enterprises will work on relatively smaller enterprises.

The product offers both first and third-party coverage benefits including coverage options for contingent business interruption, system failure, reputational loss, multimedia liability and computer crime, it said.

The crisis response service that comes with this product enables swift and efficient management of cyber events and provides IT forensic investigations, legal advice, reputational and PR management, it added.