http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/8/18324.html
By: John Leyden
Posted: 17/04/2001 at 16:30 GMT
An insurance policy against hacker-inflicted damage costs 25 per cent
more for companies using Windows NT.
This is because "there are so many security holes in Microsoft
products", John Wurzler, of Wurzler underwriting managers, told us
today.
Wurzler's stance could be a little unfair - security is far more
dependent on how well the infrastructure is designed and set up rather
than the products used to build it, we argued.
Wurzler concedes this point but says his company has to charge
premiums based on an insured organisation's turnover, the probability
of an attack and the chances of success of an attack.
And the interesting thing is that such policies are available in the
first place. Wurzler has sold insurance policies of between
$5,000-$25,000 and, so far, the highest pay-out has been $200,000
Firms are being encouraged to guard themselves against the effects of
a hacking attack on their business by taking out insurance.
Managed security service firms and insurance brokers are developing
forms of cyber-insurance that cover Web site security breaches and
virus attacks, which are not covered by general insurance business
policies.
With the cost of hacking and security breaches put at $378 million in
2000 (according to a recent FBI-backed survey) it seems to make sense
to use insurance as a way of managing risk.
Insurance policies, which are available through security firms like
Counterpane Internet Security and insurance brokers Wurzler, are
generally offered in tandem with a thorough security audit.
The introduction of security insurance policies, and we'll leave it to
you to read the fine print on policies and decide which you prefer,
could have important implications - if it influences customer purchase
decisions on security technology or even operating system.
ISN is hosted by SecurityFocus.com
---
To unsubscribe email LISTSERV@SecurityFocus.com with a message body of
"SIGNOFF ISN".
Received on Wed Apr 18 01:15 CDT 2001