New Online Calculator Helps Assess the Financial Cost of Data Theft

Darwin Professional Underwriters Inc., a specialty insurance company and provider of technology liability insurance coverage, has developed an online calculator that allows companies to estimate their financial risk from data theft.

The Tech//404 Data Loss Cost Calculator provides companies, with a no-cost, easy-to-use, interactive tool to assess the impact of a data breach or identify theft data loss incident. Darwin analyzed data from published media reports as well as several well-known industry resources, including the Ponemon Institute’s 2006 self-reporting security breach survey and cost analysis of 31 companies spanning 25 industry segments, to develop the tool’s proprietary algorithms.

The calculator can be accessed at www.tech-404.com/calculator.html. Information on recently reported data losses is also available in the site’s data loss archive at http://www.tech-404.com/rss/data_loss.aspx.

“Until now, organizations have struggled to assess the scope of their financial risk should they be hit with a data loss incident,” according to Adam Sills, lead underwriter for Darwin’s technology and information liability initiatives. “Meanwhile, the explosion of corporate data collection and storage is putting nearly every organization at risk.

“Major data losses in health care, financial services, and retail industries are reported almost weekly,” said Sills, “and the financial consequences can be severe. Affected companies can be hit with very substantial costs both from regulatory compliance and from liability issues. We believe it’s imperative that organizations have a clear understanding of the bottom-line impact of data theft and that’s why we created the Tech//404 Data Loss Cost Calculator. The quantification of business risk, even a best estimate, is often the quickest path to building awareness for CEOs and CFOs alike.”

Estimates in Three Major Categories
Organizations can use the Tech//404 Data Loss Cost Calculator to immediately estimate their financial exposure in three major categories: internal investigation expenses; customer notification/crisis management expenses; and regulatory/compliance expenses.

Darwin’s proprietary formula instantly calculates an average cost and a plus/minus 20 percent range for such expenses as: Cybercrime consulting; Customer notification (certified mail); Crisis management consulting; Credit monitoring; State/Federal fines or fees; Regulatory investigation defense; and Attorney fees.

The Tech//404 Data Loss Cost Calculator also has graphical capabilities to vividly display the impact of loss expenses by major category and individual line items. Due to scarcity of data, however, the economic impact of potential civil lawsuits (individual or class action) cannot currently be calculated.

Source: Darwin Professional Underwriters Inc.,
www.darwinpro.com.