Along with the growing impact of digitalization on organizations of every size and industry, their increasing reliance on computer systems and networks and the expanding attack surface, the risk of cyber crime is reaching new heights every day. That's why now, more than ever, organizations need to protect themselves and their customers.

We often say that it's not a matter of if you'll experience a security breac, but when. Security technologies, practices and methods all help to mitigate the risk of cyber crime, but it's never possible to be 100% secure. That's because the nature of cyber crime is always evolving with new methods and techniques that develop as quickly as new technologies emerge. So despite the availability of advanced preventative measures, cyber crime can still cost an organization plenty in financial, organizational and reputational losses.

This is why organizations should brace themselves and prepare for the inevitable. One way to do that is through **cyber crime insurance**. But before we dive in, let's review what actually constitutes cyber crime.

Crime in the cyber realm

Cyber crime is crime committed online, whether on the Internet, on networks or on computers. It can happen on any digital device, including PCs, laptops, smartphones, tablets, IoT devices, truly any connected device. It also refers to any crime that is executed using a computer system.

While monetary gain can be seen as the biggest motivator behind cyber crime, cybercriminals are also driven by information; after all, information is power in this day and age. And when we speak of lower-scale attacks, another motivator can simply be to prove they can, for bragging rights.

cyber crime can be divided into three major categories: individual, property and government. Depending on the category, the methods, techniques and skills needed to execute the attacks can vary.

Individual cyber crime involves attacks on individuals, which include cyberstalking, credit card fraud, identity theft, online slander and trafficking.

Property cyber crime is similar to real-life crime that involves the possession of an individual's property; in this case it would be against a computer or server. This type of cyber crime includes DDoS attacks, typosquatting, copyright infringement, malware infection, and the like.

Government cyber crime, as its name implies, is committed against a government and is an attack on that nation's sovereignty. This is often seen with cases of cyber espionage, cyber terrorism, the accessing of highly confidential information, etc.

We do have a blog post that's fully dedicated to different types of cyber crime, but for the sake of clarity and scope, let's go over a few of the more common ones. The most common types of cyber crime are social engineering, manipulating people to get them to divulge sensitive information, cyberstalking, a form of cyberbullying that involves cybercriminals harassing or threatening other individuals over the Internet, identity theft where cybercriminals steal an individual's identity to commit fraud, online scams offering fake goods and services, among many others.

For more detailed information, we highly recommend you check out the full post.

Clearly, the scope of cyber crime runs far and wide, presenting different risks that organizations must face. What, then, can they do to prepare for a worst-case scenario?

What is cyber crime insurance?

Commercial general liability insurance is used by organizations to protect against potential losses such as property damage, theft, worker's injury, natural disasters and other misfortunes. However, this form of general insurance doesn't cover cyber crime risk, as it is focused on tangible assets and the concept of cyber crime itself is relatively new. Still, products that cover cyber crime are out there, and are specialized to help organizations lessen the risk of being adversely affected.

**Cyber insurance** is a line of insurance produ...