Does my commercial property insurance policy cover me for electronic data loss?

Data loss? You may be covered by your commercial insurance policy.

Businesses heavily depend on their computers and the electronic data they contain to operate on a day to day basis. In case of a disaster, such as a flood or a fire, that ends up destroying their premises, they will call on their standard commercial property insurance to cover them for the loss of business. Unfortunately, these types of policies don’t provide a full coverage and many companies can be heavily financially impacted when their data is no longer accessible.

Standard commercial property packages do cover machinery and equipment such as computers, printers and monitors involved in events such as fires, floods or other weather disaster. Nevertheless, electronic data, which includes information and computer programmes stored on storage devices such as hard drives, servers and other devices are not covered. In addition, business property insurance doesn’t cover events such as power surge, electric disturbance or mechanical failures.

Additional coverage can be purchased and added to a policy and would include a cover for damage to electronic data ranging from special causes of loss such as fire, lightening, computer virus, cyber-attack up to a certain amount to an all risk coverage.

What is an Electronic Data Processing (EDP) or Computer Coverage and Data Processing Coverage insurance cover?

Electronic data processing (EDP) insurance covers damage to computers, media, and data and it fills many of the gaps that exist in standard commercial property policies with regard to electronic equipment. This type of insurance differs from a cyber liability insurance cover which covers data leaks and data losses and includes data restoration, recollection and re-creation following a security breach or data leak. Insurance policies covering data are widely available in countries such as the US and are still fairly uncommon in the UK.

Most EDP policies cover damage to equipment and data, such computers and other hardware, electronic media, and data (including programs and software). Risks ensured for include flooding, earthquake, fire, electrical disturbances, temperature and humidity changes, mechanical breakdown, hacking and viruses up to a certain limit. Valuation is key to the cover when the data is damaged or destroyed. This is based on the replacement cost of the equipment as well as the cost to reinstall data back up and in some cases, if no back up is available the cost of recreating the data including the cost of research.

What is meant by data cover in full production insurance package

Production companies spend millions developing products whether in the field of performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, and video production. The main companies take a full production package with their insurers which includes the standard elements such as employers’ liability, public liability, hired in equipment and rental loss, Errors and Omissions (E&O) which relates to clearances and licences and compliance. They can also take up a production indemnity and producers indemnity insurance which will include:
– Production indemnity – losses from interruption, abandonment or postponement of filming due to matters outside of their control
– Technical equipment – damage to technical equipment and cameras
– Props, wardrobes and sets – damage to these items
– Media liability – loss of negative film, video tape or other media storage whilst in your control or during processing

The media liability aspect of the policy allows production companies to make a claim to cover their data recovery costs should a problem occur with their footage or to cover the cost of re-filming if the data is completely unrecoverable. A proper insurance policy is therefore a must for companies which rely on digital media to perform their business activities.
For more information about protecting your data, or to get professional advice on data backup and storage solutions, speak to Creative IT and their data specialists on 020 7394 2529.