A single data breach involving payment card records can trigger a cascade of costs that most business owners never see coming: forensic investigation fees, card brand assessments, regulatory fines, and civil liability, all layered on top of operational disruption. PCI DSS 4.0.1 has raised the bar for technical controls, and cyber insurers have followed suit by tightening eligibility requirements and scrutinizing compliance posture before binding coverage. If your company stores, processes, or transmits cardholder data, the intersection of PCI DSS compliance and cyber insurance is no longer optional reading. Understanding how your cardholder data environment, authentication controls, script monitoring, forensic obligations, and potential fines affect your policy is essential before a claim exposes a gap you did not know existed. U.S. cyber insurance premiums grew by nearly 11% in 2025, driven by a 34% increase in written volume, and underwriters are pricing risk more precisely than ever. The cost of getting this wrong falls squarely on the policyholder.
Understanding the Link Between PCI DSS 4.0 and Cyber Insurance
PCI DSS 4.0.1 is the current standard governing how organizations protect cardholder data, and it carries direct implications for cyber insurance underwriting. The standard's updated requirements took full effect in April 2025, eliminating the grace period that had allowed organizations to defer certain controls. Insurers now treat PCI DSS compliance status as a material factor in both eligibility and pricing, because non-compliance correlates strongly with breach frequency and severity.
Your cyber policy application will almost certainly ask whether you maintain PCI DSS compliance and at what level. A "no" answer, or a vague one, can result in a declination, a sublimit reduction, or an exclusion endorsement that carves out payment card incidents entirely.
Why Insurers Mandate Compliance for Cardholder Data Environments
The cardholder data environment, or CDE, is the collection of systems, networks, and processes that touch payment card information. Insurers care about the CDE because it defines the blast radius of a breach. A poorly segmented CDE means more exposed records, higher notification costs, and larger card brand assessments.
Underwriters evaluate whether you have documented your CDE boundaries, restricted access to those systems, and implemented network segmentation. If your CDE scope is unclear or overly broad, the insurer sees uncontrolled risk. A well-scoped CDE with validated segmentation, on the other hand, signals disciplined security hygiene and can directly influence your premium.
The Difference Between PCI Fines and Data Breach Liabilities
PCI fines and data breach liabilities are separate financial exposures, and many business owners conflate them. PCI fines, more accurately called assessments, are contractual penalties imposed by card brands (Visa, Mastercard, etc.) through your acquiring bank. These are not government-imposed fines. They flow through your merchant agreement and can range from $5,000 to $100,000 per month of non-compliance.
Data breach liabilities, by contrast, include notification costs, credit monitoring, regulatory defense, and third-party lawsuits. A single payment card breach can generate costs exceeding $150 per compromised record when you combine forensic investigation, legal fees, and remediation. Your cyber policy may cover some or all of these, but card brand assessments often require a specific endorsement or rider. Without it, you are self-insuring one of the largest line items in a payment card breach.
By: Caden Braly
Founder of Bloc Cyber Insurance
INDEX
Bloc Cyber and Its Licensed Producers Are Authorized to Place Cyber Coverage in All 50 U.S. States and The District of Columbia.
Cyber liability insurance covers the financial losses your business faces after a cyberattack or data breach. This page explains what the coverage includes, who needs it, what it costs, and how Bloc Cyber helps you get protected fast.
We start with a twenty-minute call to walk through your contracts, your draw process, your tech stack, and the last twelve months of attempted fraud. From there we go to market with ten-plus carriers, benchmark terms side-by-side, and present the options in plain language with recommended limits and retentions. Most intakes get indicative terms within one business day.
Mandatory Technical Controls for Policy Eligibility
Cyber insurers have moved well beyond simple questionnaire-based underwriting. For organizations handling cardholder data, specific technical controls now function as prerequisites for coverage. Failing to implement them does not just weaken your security posture; it can void your policy's response at the moment you need it most.
Strict MFA Rules for All Access to the CDE
PCI DSS 4.0.1 requires multi-factor authentication for all access into the CDE, not just remote access. This is a significant expansion from prior versions, which allowed single-factor authentication for certain internal connections. Insurers have adopted this requirement almost universally. If your MFA deployment is partial, covering VPN access but not internal admin consoles or database connections within the CDE, your policy application may contain a material misrepresentation.
The standard requires MFA that uses at least two of three categories: something you know, something you have, and something you are. SMS-based one-time codes are increasingly viewed as insufficient by both PCI assessors and underwriters due to SIM-swapping risks. Hardware tokens or authenticator apps tied to device-level attestation are the practical minimum. At Bloc Cyber, we routinely see applications where the insured believes MFA is fully deployed, only to discover during form-level review that their CDE access points are only partially covered.
Script Integrity Monitoring and Anti-Skimming Requirements
One of the most consequential additions in PCI DSS 4.0.1 is Requirement 6.4.3, which mandates that all payment page scripts loaded in a consumer's browser be managed, authorized, and monitored for integrity. This control directly targets Magecart-style attacks, where malicious JavaScript is injected into checkout pages to skim card data in real time.
Organizations must maintain an inventory of all scripts executing on payment pages, confirm each script is authorized and necessary, and implement a mechanism to detect unauthorized changes. Content Security Policy headers and subresource integrity checks are common implementation approaches. Insurers are beginning to ask about script integrity monitoring on applications, and a breach caused by an unmonitored payment page script could give the carrier grounds to dispute coverage.
Automated Log Monitoring and Incident Response Readiness
PCI DSS 4.0.1 requires automated log review mechanisms (Requirement 10.4.1.1) rather than relying on manual daily reviews. Your SIEM or log management platform must generate alerts for anomalous activity, and those alerts must feed into a documented incident response plan. Insurers evaluate whether you can detect and respond to a breach within hours, not days.
A 72-hour detection-to-containment window is a common underwriting benchmark. If your log monitoring is manual or your incident response plan has not been tested in the past 12 months, expect questions from the underwriter. Preparing for these requirements before your renewal date gives you negotiating room on both coverage terms and pricing.
We start with a twenty-minute call to walk through your contracts, your draw process, your tech stack, and the last twelve months of attempted fraud. From there we go to market with ten-plus carriers, benchmark terms side-by-side, and present the options in plain language with recommended limits and retentions. Most intakes get indicative terms within one business day.
| Coverage Element | General Cyber Policy | Cryptojacking Endorsement |
|---|---|---|
| Unauthorized cloud compute charges | May be excluded or subject to low sublimit | Explicitly covered, often with higher sublimit |
| Incident response and forensics | Typically included | Included |
| Business interruption from degraded performance | Covered if waiting period is met | Covered, sometimes with shorter waiting period |
| Container/Kubernetes remediation | Covered under system restoration if triggered | Explicitly addresses cloud-native environments |
| Cloud bill reimbursement | Varies widely by form | Specifically designed for this loss type |
| Retention (deductible) | Standard retention applies | May have separate, lower retention |
Some regulatory proceedings involve parallel tracks: the regulator's formal action and an internal investigation your company runs simultaneously. Shadow defense counsel represents your company's interests during the regulatory process without formally appearing before the agency. Monitoring counsel may be appointed under a consent order to oversee your compliance.
The costs for these roles can be substantial. Certain policy forms cover shadow counsel fees as part of the defense cost grant, while others exclude them entirely. Court-appointed monitors in state enforcement actions have generated significant fees that strain organizational budgets, and whether your policy responds to those costs depends on how the form defines "defense costs" and "regulatory proceeding."
Shadow Defense and Monitoring Counsel Roles
PWA-specific insurance covers the risk that the IRS determines the project failed to meet prevailing wage or apprenticeship standards, resulting in loss of the bonus credit multiplier. Some policies also cover the penalty amounts associated with correction payments if the cure mechanism is invoked.
This coverage is particularly valuable because PWA compliance involves thousands of individual payroll records across multiple subcontractors. Even well-managed projects can have gaps. A single subcontractor paying below the prevailing rate for a misclassified trade can jeopardize the entire bonus credit. Insurance does not excuse sloppy compliance, but it does protect against the financial consequences of honest errors.
PWA-specific insurance covers the risk that the IRS determines the project failed to meet prevailing wage or apprenticeship standards, resulting in loss of the bonus credit multiplier. Some policies also cover the penalty amounts associated with correction payments if the cure mechanism is invoked.
This coverage is particularly valuable because PWA compliance involves thousands of individual payroll records across multiple subcontractors. Even well-managed projects can have gaps. A single subcontractor paying below the prevailing rate for a misclassified trade can jeopardize the entire bonus credit. Insurance does not excuse sloppy compliance, but it does protect against the financial consequences of honest errors.
Audit Protection and PWA Penalty Insurance
Comparison of Coverage for Payment Card Incidents
Not all cyber policies treat payment card incidents the same way. The difference between a standard cyber liability form and one with a PCI-specific rider can mean hundreds of thousands of dollars in uncovered costs.
Table: Standard Cyber Policy vs. PCI Comprehensive Rider
| Coverage Element | Standard Cyber Policy | With PCI Comprehensive Rider |
|---|---|---|
| Forensic investigation (PFI) | Covered, subject to sublimit | Covered at full policy limit |
| Card brand assessments | Typically excluded | Covered, subject to retention |
| Card reissuance costs | Excluded | Covered |
| Regulatory fines (state-level) | Covered where insurable by law | Covered where insurable by law |
| PCI DSS non-compliance penalties | Excluded | May be covered with conditions |
| Notification and credit monitoring | Covered | Covered |
| Business interruption | Covered, with waiting period | Covered, with waiting period |
| Third-party liability / lawsuits | Covered | Covered |
The rider is not a universal product name; different carriers structure this coverage differently. What matters is whether your policy form explicitly grants coverage for card brand assessments and card reissuance costs. If those terms do not appear in your insuring agreements or endorsements, they are not covered. This is precisely the kind of gap that a form-level review at an agency like Bloc Cyber is designed to catch before a claim arrives.
Real claims illustrate the exposure more clearly than abstract descriptions. Here are patterns that repeat across the technology sector:
- A SaaS company deploys a billing module that overcharges 12,000 end users over six months. The client demands $410,000 in restitution costs plus $150,000 in legal fees. The tech E&O form responds to the defense and indemnity obligation.
- An MSP fails to complete a server migration on schedule, causing a healthcare client to miss a compliance deadline. The healthcare company faces a regulatory fine and sues the MSP for $275,000. The policy form may respond, but only if the regulatory fine is not excluded as a penalty.
- A custom software vendor delivers an inventory management system that miscounts stock levels. The client loses $600,000 in downstream sales. The vendor's tech E&O policy covers defense costs and settlement, but a sublimit on the policy caps the payout at $500,000.
Average defense costs for technology professional liability claims range from $50,000 to $150,000 depending on complexity and jurisdiction. Settlement amounts vary widely, but six-figure demands are common even for small firms.
We start with a twenty-minute call to walk through your contracts, your draw process, your tech stack, and the last twelve months of attempted fraud. From there we go to market with ten-plus carriers, benchmark terms side-by-side, and present the options in plain language with recommended limits and retentions. Most intakes get indicative terms within one business day.
| Coverage Element | Commercial General Liability | Cyber Insurance |
|---|---|---|
| Data breach notification costs | Not covered | Covered under first-party |
| Ransomware payment | Not covered | Covered (subject to sublimit) |
| Regulatory defense | Not covered | Covered under third-party |
| Business interruption from cyberattack | Not covered | Covered with waiting period |
| Funds transfer fraud | Not covered | Covered via cyber crime endorsement |
| Third-party lawsuit over data loss | Excluded or severely limited | Covered under third-party liability |
| Technology product failure | Not covered | Covered under Tech E&O |
How much does a typical PCI forensic investigation cost?
PFI engagements range from $20,000 for a simple, small-merchant investigation to $120,000 or more for complex environments with multiple locations or e-commerce platforms. The card brands dictate the scope, and the merchant pays.
Managing Forensic Investigator (PFI) Obligations
After a suspected payment card breach, the card brands will require you to engage a PCI Forensic Investigator, a firm certified by the PCI Security Standards Council. You do not get to choose just any security consultant. The PFI must come from the Council's approved list, and the investigation follows a prescribed methodology.
The Role of the PCI Forensic Investigator After a Breach
The PFI's job is to determine the scope of the compromise, identify how the attacker gained access, confirm which cardholder data was exposed, and verify whether you were PCI DSS compliant at the time of the breach. That last point is critical. If the PFI finds you were non-compliant, the card brands may impose higher assessments, and your insurer may scrutinize whether your application contained accurate representations about your compliance status.
PFI investigations typically take 30 to 90 days and can cost between $50,000 and $500,000 depending on the complexity of your environment. During this period, your acquiring bank may place a hold on settlement funds or increase your reserve requirements, creating immediate cash flow pressure.
How Insurance Covers PFI Fees and Assessment Costs
Most cyber liability policies cover forensic investigation costs under the first-party insuring agreement, but the policy form controls the details. Some forms sublimit forensic costs at $100,000 or $250,000, which may be inadequate for a complex PFI engagement. Others require you to use a pre-approved panel forensics firm, which may or may not overlap with the PCI Council's approved PFI list.
Card brand assessments, the contractual penalties flowing through your acquiring bank, are the line item most often excluded from standard cyber forms. PCI DSS breach costs can escalate rapidly when assessments are layered on top of forensic and notification expenses. If your policy does not explicitly cover these assessments, you are carrying that risk on your own balance sheet.
We start with a twenty-minute call to walk through your contracts, your draw process, your tech stack, and the last twelve months of attempted fraud. From there we go to market with ten-plus carriers, benchmark terms side-by-side, and present the options in plain language with recommended limits and retentions. Most intakes get indicative terms within one business day.
No. A data breach or cyberattack is a cyber liability exposure, not a technology E&O exposure. You need a separate cyber liability policy form to cover breach response, notification costs, regulatory defense, and third-party claims arising from a security incident. Many technology companies carry both policies because the exposures are distinct.
FAQ: Does this cover me if I get hacked?
P2PE encrypts cardholder data from the point of interaction (the card reader) to the payment processor's secure decryption environment. A validated P2PE solution removes your systems from PCI scope for those transactions, which directly reduces both your compliance burden and your risk profile. Underwriters recognize P2PE as a meaningful risk reduction and may offer premium credits for merchants using validated solutions.
Implementing Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE)
The Underwriter's Review of Data Rooms
Underwriters expect access to the buyer's due diligence reports, the virtual data room, and the near-final purchase agreement. They review financial, tax, legal, environmental, intellectual property, and employment diligence. Gaps in diligence translate to broader exclusions on the policy. If the buyer skipped an environmental Phase I assessment, for instance, the underwriter will likely exclude environmental representations from coverage entirely. Firms like Bloc Cyber, whose practice centers on reading policy forms at the insuring-agreement level, often advise clients that the quality of your diligence directly determines the quality of your coverage.
Does a standard business owner's policy cover wire fraud losses? No. BOP policies and general liability forms exclude electronic theft and funds transfer fraud. You need a standalone cyber policy with a specific social engineering or funds transfer fraud insuring agreement.
Will my cyber policy respond if a core provider outage is not caused by a cyberattack? It depends on the form. Some policies only cover "security failures" at dependent entities, while others extend to "system failures." Confirm the trigger language before binding.
Are FTC fines under the Safeguards Rule insurable? Insurability of regulatory fines varies by state. Many cyber policies cover fines and penalties "where insurable by law," but the practical answer depends on your jurisdiction and the specific penalty assessed.
How much cyber insurance does a community bank need? There is no universal answer, but institutions processing significant wire volume should ensure their aggregate limit and sublimits can absorb a realistic worst-case fraud loss plus concurrent regulatory defense costs. A $3 million to $5 million aggregate is a common starting point for institutions with $100 million to $500 million in assets.
Does cyber insurance cover customer reimbursement after an account takeover? Some policies include customer notification and credit monitoring costs, but direct reimbursement of stolen customer funds typically requires a crime or fidelity endorsement, not the standard cyber form.
DWhat happens if I'm not compliant at the time of a breach?
Common Questions About PCI Coverage
Does my general business insurance cover PCI fines?
No. General liability and commercial property policies do not respond to PCI assessments or cyber-related fines. You need a cyber liability policy with specific payment card coverage, and even then, the policy form must explicitly include card brand assessments.
What happens if I'm not compliant at the time of a breach?
Your insurer may deny or reduce the claim based on material misrepresentation in your application. The PFI report will document your compliance status, and that report goes to both the card brands and your carrier. Non-compliance at the time of breach also increases the card brand assessments you will face.
Will my rates go down if I have MFA on everything?
Full MFA deployment across all CDE access points is a positive underwriting factor, and it can reduce your premium. The degree of discount varies by carrier, but organizations with verified MFA, endpoint detection, and tested incident response plans consistently receive more favorable terms.
Do I need special insurance if I use a third-party payment processor?
Using a third-party processor reduces your PCI scope, but it does not eliminate your liability. If a breach occurs and your systems contributed to the compromise, or if you failed to properly configure the processor's integration, you can still face assessments and lawsuits. PCI DSS 4.0 compliance obligations apply to any entity that stores, processes, or transmits cardholder data, even if that transmission is a redirect to a hosted payment page.
Real claims illustrate the exposure more clearly than abstract descriptions. Here are patterns that repeat across the technology sector:
- A SaaS company deploys a billing module that overcharges 12,000 end users over six months. The client demands $410,000 in restitution costs plus $150,000 in legal fees. The tech E&O form responds to the defense and indemnity obligation.
- An MSP fails to complete a server migration on schedule, causing a healthcare client to miss a compliance deadline. The healthcare company faces a regulatory fine and sues the MSP for $275,000. The policy form may respond, but only if the regulatory fine is not excluded as a penalty.
- A custom software vendor delivers an inventory management system that miscounts stock levels. The client loses $600,000 in downstream sales. The vendor's tech E&O policy covers defense costs and settlement, but a sublimit on the policy caps the payout at $500,000.
Average defense costs for technology professional liability claims range from $50,000 to $150,000 depending on complexity and jurisdiction. Settlement amounts vary widely, but six-figure demands are common even for small firms.
We start with a twenty-minute call to walk through your contracts, your draw process, your tech stack, and the last twelve months of attempted fraud. From there we go to market with ten-plus carriers, benchmark terms side-by-side, and present the options in plain language with recommended limits and retentions. Most intakes get indicative terms within one business day.
| Coverage Element | Commercial General Liability | Cyber Insurance |
|---|---|---|
| Data breach notification costs | Not covered | Covered under first-party |
| Ransomware payment | Not covered | Covered (subject to sublimit) |
| Regulatory defense | Not covered | Covered under third-party |
| Business interruption from cyberattack | Not covered | Covered with waiting period |
| Funds transfer fraud | Not covered | Covered via cyber crime endorsement |
| Third-party lawsuit over data loss | Excluded or severely limited | Covered under third-party liability |
| Technology product failure | Not covered | Covered under Tech E&O |
Will my policy pay for the fines if I'm not compliant?
This depends entirely on the policy form. Some forms cover PCI fines only if the merchant was making good-faith compliance efforts. Others exclude fines arising from known non-compliance. Read the exclusions carefully before binding.
How much does a typical PCI forensic investigation cost?
PFI engagements range from $20,000 for a simple, small-merchant investigation to $120,000 or more for complex environments with multiple locations or e-commerce platforms. The card brands dictate the scope, and the merchant pays.
What is the difference between a fine and an assessment?
A fine is a penalty for non-compliance with PCI DSS standards. An assessment is a cost-recovery mechanism: the card brands and issuing banks recoup their actual losses (fraud charges, card replacement costs) from the breached merchant. Both are financial obligations, but they arise from different triggers and may be treated differently under a policy form.
What This Means for Your Business
PCI DSS compliance and cyber insurance are two sides of the same risk management strategy. Your compliance posture directly affects whether your policy will respond, how much coverage you actually have, and what you will pay for it. The technical controls required by PCI DSS 4.0.1, including MFA across all CDE access, script integrity monitoring on payment pages, and automated log review, are now baseline expectations for underwriters, not bonus features.
The single most important step you can take is to review your current policy form at the insuring-agreement level. Confirm that card brand assessments, PFI costs, and card reissuance expenses are covered without restrictive sublimits. If you are unsure whether your form addresses these exposures, a specialist review can identify the gaps before a breach does. Bloc Cyber's practice is built around exactly this kind of form-level analysis for companies handling payment card data. You can
request a coverage review to have a specialist walk through your policy form, line by line, and tell you where the coverage stops.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Caden Braly
— Founder, Bloc Cyber
I'm Caden Braly, founder of Bloc Cyber, the specialty cyber insurance arm of Braly Insurance. I built Bloc Cyber around one idea: businesses deserve coverage that actually responds when a cyberattack happens. I work closely with clients to understand their exposure, place the right policy through specialty carriers, and stand with them through the claim. My goal is simple — give every business straight answers and protection they can trust.
Full profile → caden@bloccyber.com LinkedIn
Industries We Protect
Cyber Coverage Built for Your Industry
Every industry faces a different cyber threat, from patient records in healthcare to wire fraud in construction. Bloc Cyber matches coverage to the risks your sector actually faces, drawing on specialty carriers that understand your business. Find your industry below to see how we protect it.
Healthcare
Banking
Retail / E-Commerce
Legal
Technology / SaaS
Education
Energy / Utilities
Manufacturing
Construction
Defense
Healthcare
HIPAA-grade protection for patient data
725
healthcare breaches disclosed in 2024
HIPAA-grade protection for patient data
▣ Ransomware on EHR systems
▣ PHI exfiltration
▣ Medical device exploits
▣ Business email compromise
Sub-sectors we place
Hospitals and health systems
Physician practices and specialty clinics
Dental practices and DSOs
Behavioral health and addiction treatment centers
Medical billing and revenue cycle management firms
Typical turnaround for indication of terms: 1 business day.
Banking
Coverage that meets FFIEC and NYDFS expectations
$5.9M
average cost of a financial sector breach
Common threats we underwrite against
▣ Wire fraud and BEC
▣ Credential stuffing
▣ Third-party vendor risk
▣ Ransomware
Sub-sectors we place
Community banks
Credit unions
Mortgage lenders and loan originators
Wealth management and RIAs
Payment processors and merchant acquirers
Typical turnaround for indication of terms: 1 business day.
Retail / E-Commerce
PCI-DSS aligned coverage for every checkout
42%
of retailers hit by ransomware in the last year
Common threats we underwrite against
▣ Magecart / card skimming
▣ POS malware
▣ Account takeover
▣ Supply-chain intrusion
Sub-sectors we place
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands
Shopify and marketplace sellers
Brick-and-mortar multi-location retailers
Restaurants and QSR franchises
Grocery and specialty food retail
Typical turnaround for indication of terms: 1 business day.
Legal
Privilege, client files, and trust-account safeguards
1 in 4
law firms reported a breach in 2024
Common threats we underwrite against
▣ Wire-transfer fraud
▣ Privileged data theft
▣ Email account compromise
▣ Ransomware
Sub-sectors we place
AmLaw / large firms
Boutique litigation firms
Personal injury and plaintiffs’ firms
Estate planning and trust attorneys
Title and real estate closing firms
Typical turnaround for indication of terms: 1 business day.
Technology / SaaS
SOC 2 and ISO-aligned risk transfer
$4.88M
avg. cost of a SaaS breach in 2024
Common threats we underwrite against
▣ Supply-chain attacks
▣ Cloud misconfiguration
▣ Token and key theft
▣ Zero-day exploits
Sub-sectors we place
B2B SaaS platforms
Managed service providers (MSPs) and MSSPs
Fintech startups
AI and machine learning companies
Cloud hosting and infrastructure providers
Typical turnaround for indication of terms: 1 business day.
Education
FERPA-aligned coverage for student and research data
80%
of K–12 districts hit by ransomware since 2022
Common threats we underwrite against
▣ Ransomware on district networks
▣ Student PII theft
▣ Fake invoice fraud
▣ DDoS on exam platforms
Sub-sectors we place
K-12 public school districts
Private and charter schools
Colleges and universities
EdTech platforms
Tutoring, test prep, and online learning providers
Typical turnaround for indication of terms: 1 business day.
Energy / Utilities
OT and IT coverage for critical infrastructure
24/7
operational-tech monitoring requirements
Common threats we underwrite against
▣ ICS/SCADA intrusion
▣ Nation-state actors
▣ Ransomware on OT
▣ Insider threat
Sub-sectors we place
Municipal utilities (water, electric, gas)
Oil and gas operators
Pipeline and midstream companies
Renewable energy (solar, wind) developers
Electric cooperatives and rural utilities
Typical turnaround for indication of terms: 1 business day.
Manufacturing
Business interruption protection for connected plants
25%
of all ransomware attacks target manufacturing
Common threats we underwrite against
▣ Ransomware halting production
▣ IP theft
▣ ICS exploits
▣ Vendor compromise
Sub-sectors we place
Industrial and heavy equipment manufacturers
Food and beverage processing
Pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers
Automotive and parts suppliers
Aerospace component manufacturers
Typical turnaround for indication of terms: 1 business day.
Construction
Protection for project files, wires, and jobsite tech
$200K+
average wire-fraud loss in construction
Common threats we underwrite against
▣ Wire-transfer diversion
▣ BEC on project payments
▣ Stolen bid data
▣ Ransomware
Sub-sectors we place
General contractors
Commercial HVAC, electrical, and plumbing subs
Civil and infrastructure contractors
Homebuilders and residential developers
Architecture and engineering (A&E) firms
Typical turnaround for indication of terms: 1 business day.
Defense
CMMC, DFARS, and CUI-compliant risk transfer
CMMC
2.0 compliance required by 2026
Common threats we underwrite against
▣ CUI exfiltration
▣ Nation-state APTs
▣ Supply-chain compromise
▣ Cleared-personnel targeting
Sub-sectors we place
DoD prime contractors
CMMC-regulated subcontractors
Defense software and systems integrators
Aerospace and satellite contractors
Federal IT and cleared staffing firms
Typical turnaround for indication of terms: 1 business day.
The Bloc system
One foundation.
Ten industry-specific builds.
The Bloc mark is built from stackable planes — each one a different angle on the same core structure. That’s how we place coverage: one underwriting discipline, tuned and re-tuned for every industry we serve.
Coverage
A policy you can actually read.
Structured in three clean blocs.
01
First-Party
Your direct losses when an incident hits your business.
✓
Incident response & forensics
✓
Business interruption
✓ Data restoration
✓ Cyber extortion / ransomware
✓ Funds transfer fraud
✓ Reputational harm
02
Third-Party
Your liability to clients, partners, and regulators.
✓
Network security liability
✓
Privacy liability (HIPAA, GDPR, state laws)
✓ Regulatory defense & fines
✓ PCI-DSS fines and assessments
✓ Media liability
✓ Breach notification costs
03
Specialty
Advanced coverages for complex risks and contracts.
✓
Technology E&O
✓
Social engineering fraud
✓ Contingent business interruption
✓ Systems failure
✓ Bricking & hardware replacement
✓ CMMC / regulatory-specific endorsements
Typical limits placed
$1M / $1M starter
$5M / $10M mid-market
$25M+ layered towers
Custom retentions
Common Questions
Cyber Liability Insurance, Explained
What does cyber insurance cover?
Cyber insurance covers the financial losses from a data breach or cyberattack. This includes breach response, legal fees, customer notification, ransomware, business interruption, and regulatory fines, depending on your policy.
Does my business really need cyber insurance?
Yes. Any business that stores customer data, processes payments, or relies on connected systems faces cyber risk. Small and mid-sized companies are frequent targets because they often have fewer defenses.
How much does cyber insurance cost?
Cost depends on your industry, revenue, data volume, and security practices. We market your risk to multiple carriers to find strong coverage at a competitive price. Request a quote for an exact figure.
What is the difference between first-party and third-party cyber coverage?
First-party coverage pays for your own losses, like data recovery and lost income. Third-party coverage pays for claims from others harmed by a breach on your systems.
How fast can I get a quote?
Most clients receive a quote in under 24 hours after we review the details of their business and exposure.
What should I do first after a cyberattack?
Contact us right away. We help you start breach response, connect you with forensic and legal support, and guide your claim so you contain the damage quickly.
Insights
Field notes from the placement desk.
What carriers are asking right now.
Start a quote
Tell us about your business.
We’ll come back with terms.
We’ll review your stack, your contracts, and your exposure — then place the program against the right markets. Most intakes get indicative terms back within one business day.
01
Quick intake
We only ask what the carriers actually need.
02
Benchmark
Side-by-side terms from 10+ specialty cyber carriers.
03
Bind
Plain-language policy review, e-signed and in force.
