Giving is great but be sure nobody is taking!
After Church, I was reading the bulletin and there was a small article that the Church will not be sending out annual statements of giving. The article stated if you need to know how much you gave, you will need to log into a secure portal and register. The next thought I had was that this is a huge cybersecurity risk and I hope the denominational program provides Cyber Insurance for the churches in the program.
The Church was opening up their system to outsiders, that contained my financial/banking information (PII-Personally identifiable information, my weekly contribution is set up on automatics EFT). Could somebody hack this system and obtain my records? As a Church leader, you must be sure that your insurance program contains coverage for Cyber Liability.
Most Cyber Insurance policies will cover the following costs:
· Investigation: A forensics investigation is necessary to determine what occurred, how to repair the damage, and how to prevent the same type of breach from occurring in the future. Investigations may involve the services of a third-party security firm, as well as coordination with law enforcement and the FBI.
· Business losses: A cyber insurance policy may include similar items that are covered by an errors & omissions policy (E&O) (errors due to negligence and other reasons), as well as monetary losses experienced by network downtime, business interruption, data loss recovery and costs involved in managing a crisis, which may involve repairing reputation damage.
· Privacy and notification: This includes required data breach notifications to customers and other affected parties, which are mandated by law in many jurisdictions, and credit monitoring for customers whose information was or may have been breached.
· Lawsuits and extortion: This includes legal expenses associated with the release of confidential information and intellectual property, legal settlements, and regulatory fines. This may also include the costs of cyber extortion, such as from ransomware.
Churches have many other exposures to cyber risk but the implementation of a Cyber Risk Management program will help mitigate and manage your Church Cyber Risk. To discuss your Cyber Risk Management program or to review any of your insurance needs, contact your Trusted Choice Independent Agent at Richey-Barrett Insurance.
Leave a Reply