A new Business Insurance webinar examines the case for obtaining cyber insurance and demonstrates how businesses can secure the most effective coverage at the best cost.

The March 17 webinar, “How to Negotiate and Buy Effective Cyber Insurance Coverage,” shows the demand for cyber coverage is increasing as technology evolves and becomes more prevalent across industries.

That, combined with state data breach exposure laws, industry-specific regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act for the health care industry and costly Federal Trade Commission investigations, have turned cyber coverage into a “front-of-mind” issue for risk managers, according to speaker Kevin Kalinich, global practice leader for cyber risk insurance at Aon Risk Solutions.

But the changing technology and information systems are “not necessarily making exposures worse — they’re making them different” by introducing new sources of risk, such as mobile device payment applications and cloud computing, he said.

Lori Nugent, a shareholder at Greenberg Traurig L.L.P. who has served as counsel since 2002 for firms who have suffered breaches, said underwriters try to differentiate the companies that do a good job of protecting themselves from cyber breaches with the companies that pay little attention.

When dealing with regulators, lawyers and judges, “it’s a whole lot more comfortable to have actual proof points — actual documents, actual evidence — to show a company really cares about cyber security and is doing a good job,” she said.

Ms. Nugent described what cyber governance looks like, the importance of an incident response plan, best practices when it comes to cyber security, and what a company’s board of directors needs to know.

Finally, Kristy Harris, manager of corporate insurance for Southwest Airlines Co., described the process of buying cyber coverage for the company, which placed its first cyber insurance policy last year.

She recommended performing an internal risk assessment, collaborating with the chief technology officer, educating the board of directors and developing an incident response plan before beginning to look for coverage.

“The insurance is really just a band-aid, because most insurance companies won’t even want to look at your company without having (an incident response plan) in place,” Ms. Harris said.

After due diligence is complete, then companies can start looking for trustworthy partners and placement strategies, Ms. Harris said.

The Business Insurance webinar is available on demand here.