Employers can now offer group personal cyber insurance as an employee benefit.
Emergence Insurance, the only Australian-owned and operated cyber insurance specialist, has introduced group personal cyber insurance that’s available to employers of any size to offer as an employee benefit for team members.
The policy, which covers employees and their family members, costs less than $1 a week per employee and has no excess.
Emergence Insurance founder and CEO Troy Filipcevic said the policy was the next iteration of the personal cyber insurance wording Emergence has offered as a stand-alone product for individuals and families since 2020.
The underwriting agency introduced co-branded online broker portals in 2021, making it easier for brokers to transact personal cyber protection for their clients.
The group personal cyber policy provides cover up to $20,000 for each insured person for cyber events that affect their home IT. Cyber events include malware, cyber espionage, cyber extortion (ransomware), denial of service attacks and hacking.
The policy provides cyber event response costs, such as credit and ID monitoring, and the costs of cyber extortion, data restoration, legal, notification, technical management and virus extraction.
Insureds have access to Emergence’s 24/7 incident response hotline and cyber breach experts.
Emergence Chief Operating Officer Colin Pausey said: “Employers are seeking innovative employee benefits as they aim to retain and reward staff in the current low unemployment environment.”
The product is available for all sized businesses, from micro and SME to large corporates, and affinity schemes, industry bodies and associations for their members. “If brokers have other clients for whom the policy is applicable, let’s talk,” Mr Pausey said.
For SME and corporate cyber insurance buyers, brokers simply tick an add-on box while they transact a commercial product. Group personal cyber can also be purchased as a stand-alone policy.
Mr Filipcevic says group personal cyber is an Australian first and its development demonstrates the depth of Emergence’s experience in the cyber market.
“Families’ internet usage occurs daily and the more smart devices a household uses, the greater their vulnerability. The pandemic supercharged online shopping and that has continued.
“We use digital technology to find efficiencies and communicate, but criminals also use the technology to scam people and steal their identities,” Mr Filipcevic said.
“We safeguard physical assets by locking doors and keeping our wallets secure. But what about access to digital assets? ID theft and online scams are rife in the Australian community.”
Released by: Kate Tilley, Emergence Communications Consultant
E: ktj@ktjournalism.com P: (07) 3831 7500