Professional Indemnity Insurance – can IT security consultants afford to be without it?
With widespread viruses, malwares, spywares, adwares and security breaches over the internet, the role of IT security professionals has gained prominence. This year for exmaple the 'Conflicker' virus has spread to schools, hospitals and government departments across europe turning thousands of PCs into servers of email spam and installing spyware software.
As the number of virus and security attacks on company or government networks continue to escalate globablly, there is an increased chance that freelance IT security consultants could be on the receiving end of a lawsuit when a client's system is breached. Why? Because IT security professionals owe their clients a legal 'duty of care' and if it is found they have been negligent as a result of a security breach they can be sued for damages and resulting financial loss.
Suppose a company’s servers are compromised causing data loss, downtime and loss of sales. If a client thinks the consultants advice / actions has caused the security breach they could be on the receiving end of a hefty negligence claim and legal costs. If they are held liabile they might have to pay for the fixing of servers and also for damages caused by data loss, down time and lost sales. Depending on size and nature of the project the amount could very well go up to several hundred thousand pounds.
One of the preventive measures IT security consultants can take to protect themselves against these costly claims of negligence is professional indemnity insurance. Professional indemnity insurance provides cover for claims brought against the policyholder due to their professional negligence. It helps pay the legal costs as well as any compensation sought by a client as a result of negligence. Consider it a blanket of security that safeguards your business from the financial consequences of mistakes / errors.
