I think we just had a cyber incident — what do I do first?
Call the carrier's 24/7 incident response hotline before doing anything else. Do not pay a ransom, do not notify patients or customers, do not engage your usual IT vendor for forensics, do not delete files. The carrier will retain a panel forensic firm and breach coach (an attorney specializing in privacy and cyber law) — using non-panel vendors usually means the carrier won't reimburse those costs. Preserve evidence (don't reformat the affected systems), isolate the breach (segment networks, but don't power down — volatile memory matters in forensics), and get the response team engaged. Speed matters in two ways: cleaner forensics if you act fast, and many regulatory clocks (HIPAA's 60-day notification, NY SHIELD Act notice "without unreasonable delay") start at discovery.
- Category
- Business Insurance
- Audience
- For existing clients
- Topic
- Cyber & Privacy
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Almost never — both are standard exclusions in commercial property policies. Flood requires a separate NFIP policy or a private flood policy; earthquake requires either an endorsement (where available) or a standalone policy. NY is not in a high earthquake risk zone, but flood is genuinely material — much of NYC, Long Island, and the Hudson Valley sits in mapped FEMA flood zones, and a single flooded basement can run $100K+ in property and inventory losses. If your premises are…
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