NU Online News Service

According to a survey of public companies by Chubb, more than 70 percent say they have an incident-response plan for an electronic security breach.

That would appear to be good news.

But the bad news is nearly 60 percent of the companies surveyed say cyber-liability insurance is not a part of the incident-response plan.

Other survey results indicate there is a definite concern about data breaches, but it doesn't necessarily lead to an insurance purchase to appropriately cover the risk.

The results are presented as part of an infographic Chubb has put together, further revealing results of its “2012 Public Company Risk Survey.”

Click here to see the graphic.

In the same survey Chubb discovered there is a “general lack of concern” among surveyed public companies that their directors and officers will face a lawsuit.

The survey of decision-makers at 145 public companies in the U.S. and Canada was conducted by Pollara, an independent public-opinion and market research firm.

On Chubb's blog, Ken Goldstein, vice president for Chubb Specialty Insurance, writes that he has spoken to small- and medium-sized businesses (SMB) about cyber risk and “discovered there's some misunderstanding about their risk and how their current insurance program will respond to this type of loss.”

He says SMBs think other policies provide coverage. That may be true, in part. Some insurance could be available under other policies but “there are frequently significant gaps in coverage that could leave an SMB at risk of financial and reputational damage,” Goldstein adds.