No small business owner considers their business small. To them it’s their drive, passion, source of pride, and perhaps most-importantly, their family’s financial well-being. And while larger undertakings have the resources to dedicate towards GDPR compliance, it is small businesses, many times unknowingly, that have the most at stake. That’s why offering Cyber & Privacy Breach Liability coverage is one of the most-important promises that you can make your insureds today.
Under GDPR the definition of Personal Information is intentionally broad, and includes “any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person”. Any breach of this information creates internal reporting requirements, and if potentially “harmful” to customers, timely reporting to the appropriate Country’s Data Protection Authority and customers alike. In addition to data processing, principals such as lawfulness, fairness & transparency, purpose limitation, data minimization, accuracy, storage limitation and integrity & confidentiality; there are now a myriad of important customer rights that need to be incorporated into business and vendor operations.
Notwithstanding reputation risk, non-compliance can be expensive with fines that range from 10M Euros up to 2% of annual turnover to 20M Euros up to 4% of turnover. This is where Cyber & Privacy Breach Liability insurance comes into play. In addition to providing needed coverage, many insurance offerings come complete with a robust educational interface and reactive services that quickly mitigate compliance risk during the insured’s greatest time of need.
What started out as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (General Assembly of the United Nations, 10 December 1948), followed by ground-breaking laws in Spain, Portugal, Austria, Germany and Sweden have lead us to today’s GDPR regulations. In today’s connected world, European data protection has global implications, and helping to educate and protect your small business insureds will only further ensure their drive, and financial well-being.
About Berkley Re
Berkley Re is proud to be a Supporting Member of ICMIF. Our organization provides numerous custom turnkey solutions – complete insured offerings allowing our partners to provide critical coverage quickly, efficiently, and with a flexible quota share approach. We also provide collaborative Treaty and Facultative solutions to our client companies.
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This article was written exclusively for ICMIF by Samuel Broomer, Executive Vice-President, Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer of ICMIF Supporting Member Berkley Re.
Samuel Broomer has been in the insurance and reinsurance industry since 1993 and has held positions of increasing responsibility in the United States and abroad. Today he is the Executive Vice-President, Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer of Berkley Re, part of W.R. Berkley Corp. where he helps guide a number of operations including the Cyber & Privacy Liability practice, Innovations Team, Marketing, Business Development, Strategic Planning and delivering unique insurance and reinsurance Custom Turnkey Solutions on a global basis. Samuel will attend the forthcoming ICMIF Biennial Conference (12-15 November 2019) in Auckland (New Zealand) and will be available for conversations with ICMIF delegates during the event.
Samuel earned his undergraduate degree in accounting from Bryant University, Master of Business Administration and Master of Science in Taxation degrees from the University of Hartford, is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and holds The Institutes® CPCU, AIAF, AIC, AIDA, ARC, ARe, ASLI, AU and Cyber designations. Samuel holds three active State of Connecticut insurance licenses, has helped to shape the United States Department of Treasury perspective on the Cyber insurance market, is an International Association of Privacy Professionals Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/Europe, CIPP/USA, CIPP/Canada). He lives with his wife and two boys in Fairfield County Connecticut (USA).
