By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
The Burlington Area School District’s insurance consultant advised the School Board Monday to protect itself from cyber liability.
In short, when the district renews its liability insurance on Nov. 27, it will have to choose a separate plan for cyber liability.
John Erickson and David Kruse from Hausmann-Johnson were on hand to explain the problem, which defines the lines of employment practices liability insurance in becoming its own separate cost.
“They’re making very clear that it’s not the intent of that kind of coverage to cover that kind of loss,” Kruse said, adding that the district needs to be prepared to cover everything from hackers getting into the district’s personal files for personal information to the potential transfer of a computer virus to a third party to health, educational and financial records being disclosed.
Kruse and Erickson presented four quotes, recommending that the district pursue the $13,733 a year option from Beazley. The other three options including between $11,315 and $11,915 from AIG and CPM – and a $4,628 offer by Great American.
When questioned, the two explained that Great American was offering a $1 million limit in coverage with no prior acts coverage and no multi-media wrongful acts coverage (if something were to happen on the district website, for instance).
Erickson stressed that they were still negotiating with the companies and trying to come up with better offers, but that the Beazley offer would give the most protection over different tiers of coverage, including providing a coordinator for notification services, call center services and mitigation services in event of a privacy breach.
“It’s a difficult do-it-yourself project,” Erickson said of the “breach coach” coordinator.
Both Erickson and Kruse stressed that the coverage is a growing field, as cyber attacks are becoming more and more frequent.
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