Techinsurance – We're the Business Insurance experts for IT services, providing General Liability, Professional Liability, Workers Comp, Umbrella, and Errors and Omissions Insurance

Internet Liability Insurance

The industry has not yet settled on a set of standards by which to govern Internet liability insurance. However, given this lack of industry-wide standards, two institutions have developed consensus-based Internet security benchmarks. The American Institute of Public Accountants (AICPA) and the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) trust services are a pair of consensus-based cyber security benchmarks based on a common framework to address the internet's risks and opportunities, WebTrust and SysTrust. WebTrust is for business-to-consumer assurance, and SysTrust is for business-to-business assurance.

WebTrust helps online vendors optimize their electronic goals by documenting a business commitment to meeting their needs, providing online shoppers with a safe, inviting, efficient, and valuable e-commerce environment, and keeping sales promises. Such demonstrations of trustworthiness both improve customer acquisition and increase sales conversion ratios. Likewise, SysTrust is a professional service that builds customer confidence by addressing security, availability, confidentiality and processing integrity.

The joint venture of AICPA and CICA seeks to provide business-to-customer assurance in three areas. The CPA/CA web trust entails three entities, one of which is devoted to business practices and disclosure, a second to transaction integrity, and a third to information protection and privacy.

Of course, a premium is the price for a given insurance policy. The Insurance Information Institute forecasts that premiums for Internet liability insurance should exceed $2 billion within the next four to five years.