Is your business operating a hybrid working model? If so, have you stopped to review what this means for your computer-related risks? Do you have computer insurance that would protect your keyboard hero?

84% of 35-54-year-old adults own a laptop.  So how many laptops does your business have in employees’ homes?  Or are your employees logging in from private laptops?

Have you asked where that might be from?  Is it a shared office space, in which their laptop could be hacked, stolen or damaged?  Is it the kitchen island, where spillages could easily occur?  Is it in and around kids and pets who could knock it off a table?  Do they share a flat or home with other people? How trustworthy are those people?

The risks en route to the office

Here’s another question: how many days a week do your employees come into work with laptops in their bag?  Around 29% of UK employees work from home ‘some of the time’. The rest of the time, they may be transporting their computer into the office by train, bus, or car.  But they’re not forgetful, are they?  They couldn’t possibly leave their laptop on public transport, could they?  Or have it stolen?

Why your property insurance won’t cover your computer

Alarm bells should ring – unless you believe it’s all OK, because your commercial property insurance will cover it.  Here’s the bad news.  It probably won’t.

Property insurance policies have had policy wordings significantly tightened. Any cover for a computer is typically only provided if physical damage is caused to it, by a specific type of property peril, such as fire or flooding.  It usually covers computers only whilst on the business premises.  Newsflash. You could have significant protection gaps.

Then there’s the data on them.  Property insurance policies are not interested in any claim relating to data loss, date corruption, viruses, hacking or denial of service.

How to protect your computer hardware, software and data

What businesses of all sizes, right down to individual freelance operations, need in their locker is a stand-alone computer policy.

The core cover of such a policy protects the hardware, paying out if the computer is accidentally damaged, stolen or lost.  The loss could be in the home, a shared office space or public place, or in transit between office and home.

Extra cover can then be bolted on.  This can cover data losses. Here, any loss or corruption of vital data – that could be the very backbone of your organisation’s operations – can be restored and cleaned up by experts.  Regardless of whether corruption was down to maliciousness, employee error or a power spike, it should be restored.

If you add on cover for viruses, hacking or denial of service, IT experts can be on hand, to resolve the issue and get you back up and running again.

Should your computer completely break down – resulting in that calamity that hits all of us, if the network crashes even for just an hour – you can be compensated for any extra costs.

What about related equipment?

Computers have a whole load of associated devices – headphones, audio-visual equipment, sat navs, mobiles, broadband modems and photocopiers to name but a few.  Your computer policy can also cover these.

Protecting your keyboard hero

Getting the right protection for the engine room of your business – the keyboard heroes performing more functions than you can even name – is easy.  Simply call Gauntlet Group today, on 0113 244 8686 and one of our Leeds-based commercial insurance brokers will be able to assist you.

Once we’ve discussed your needs and which elements of protection you want, from just core hardware protection upwards, we can quickly get you a quote and get all those gaps in your insurance cover filled.

Don’t leave this a day longer.  You never know what computer accident, incident or hacking event might occur, but can probably visualise what the business impacts of that could be.

Call our friendly Leeds brokers today, to sort out computer insurance and any other commercial insurance that you require.