Cyber for Plan Sponsors

Even If Your Information Doesn’t Seem Valuable, Cyber Attacks Will Still Steal It

08.27.2019

You may think that the information you’re storing for your business or plan isn’t that valuable. You may not be storing things like credit card numbers or payment credentials, but cyber attackers will still attempt to breach your information and steal your data.

For example, would information stored by a school seem particularly valuable? No? Well, to cyber attackers it was. Pearson Assessments’ AIMSweb product’s school users were the victims of a data breach in 2019. Student names, birthdays, and email addresses seemed to be the main type of information stolen.

Does this information seem particularly valuable? Probably not. But compared to this information, information stored by plan sponsors would be priceless to a hacker. You have to make sure that you can protect your information and the only way to guarantee that you can contain and mitigate a data breach is with cyber liability insurance.

How can you obtain instant cyber insurance?

While the ERISA fidelity bond is required to protect the participants of the plan, it does not, however, protect YOU and your company as the fiduciary.

Colonial Surety Company is a Treasury Listed surety company providing ERISA fidelity bonds packaged with fiduciary liability insurance and cyber liability insurance. Colonial is one of the leading providers of ERISA related products, offering bonds approved by the Dept. of Labor. We make it easy to obtain your bond instantly as well as allowing you to purchase retroactive insurance for the years the plan was not previously covered.

Under ERISA, fiduciaries may be held personally liable for breaches of their responsibilities in the administration or handling of employee benefit plans. Under ERISA 410, the plan cannot relieve you of this responsibility with indemnification language, however, it specifically permits persons with personal liability to purchase Fiduciary Liability Insurance. Covering yourself with Fiduciary Liability Insurance gives you peace of mind that you are protected. Learn how to bundle your ERISA bond and fiduciary liability insurance and cyber liability insurance for a discounted rate.

Colonial’s cyber insurance provides a services-based solution to help plan sponsors manage data breaches successfully. These services include a dedicated team of cyber breach professionals who assist plan sponsors at every stage of incident investigation and breach response. These professionals coordinate the carefully vetted forensics experts and specialized lawyers to help plan sponsors establish what’s been compromised; assess plan sponsor responsibility; and, notify those individuals affected. In addition, these services will also coordinate credit or identity monitoring, and PR advice to help the plan sponsor safeguard its reputation. Of course, Colonial’s cyber insurance also indemnifies and defends plan sponsors from covered lawsuits or regulatory actions, the risk of which may be reduced by a well-coordinated breach response, but can never be completely eliminated.

If you would like to learn more about purchasing an ERISA fidelity bond, or an ERISA fidelity bond package including fiduciary liability insurance or cyber liability insurance, call 888-383-3313 or email ERISADept@colonialsurety.com. Learn more about becoming a Pension Professional Partner here.