Professional services
Cyber Insurance Calculator
Works cyber cover, where the response costs usually exceed the ransom.
Result
An estimating tool, not insurance advice and not a quote. Underwriting sets real premiums on factors no calculator sees. What cover is appropriate is a question for a licensed broker. Per-record response costs vary widely by industry and by what data was exposed, and the figures published in breach studies are averages across very different incidents. Cyber policies differ more than most lines in what they actually cover: ransomware payments, social engineering fraud, and regulatory fines are each sometimes included, sometimes excluded and sometimes sub-limited. Read the wording rather than the limit.
Get a Free Business AuditHow the calculation works
Revenue, records held and the limit chosen drive the premium, with annual and monthly cost shown. Cyber policies typically combine first party cover for the business's own costs, meaning investigation, notification, restoration and business interruption, with third party liability for claims by affected individuals or partners.
What moves the number
- Revenue and the volume and sensitivity of records held.
- Security controls in place, which increasingly affect eligibility.
- Limit and sub-limits, which vary by coverage part.
- Whether business interruption is included.
Where this one goes wrong
The large costs in an incident are usually forensic investigation, legal advice, notification of affected individuals and the business interruption while systems are down, rather than any payment to an attacker. A policy sized against a ransom figure is therefore sized against the wrong number. Insurers also increasingly require specific controls such as multifactor authentication and tested backups as a condition, and a business that attests to controls it does not have risks a declined claim on a technicality that was its own statement.
Before you quote
- Size the limit against response and interruption costs, not a ransom.
- Answer control questionnaires accurately, since claims depend on it.
- Check sub-limits by coverage part, not just the headline limit.
Where the rules come from
Questions
About this calculator
What does a cyber incident actually cost?
Mostly forensic investigation, legal advice, notifying affected individuals and the business interruption while systems are down, rather than any payment to an attacker. A limit sized against a ransom figure is sized against the wrong number.
Do insurers require specific security controls?
Increasingly yes, including multifactor authentication and tested backups, often as a condition of cover. Attesting to controls the business does not have risks a declined claim based on its own statement, which makes answering accurately a priority.
Does general liability cover a data breach?
Generally not. Standard liability policies commonly exclude or do not reach data incidents, which is why cyber cover exists as a separate line. Assuming it is included somewhere in the programme is a common gap worth confirming rather than hoping.
The formula
breach cost = records x cost per record x industry factor; limit adds business interruption exposure
Put this calculator on your site
Free to embed. Paste this where you want it to appear. It stays up to date automatically because it loads from BDEVY.
Please keep the attribution line. It is the only thing we ask in return.
How to use this calculator
- Personal records held. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 8,000.
- Annual revenue ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $2,400,000.
- Response cost per record ($). Notification, credit monitoring, forensics, legal.
- Industry risk. Enter your own figure; the page starts at Moderate (1.0x).
- Rate per $1,000 of cover. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 12.
The result updates as you type, so you can try a figure, see what it does to cover worth considering, and change it back. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or saved.
A worked example
These are the figures the calculator opens with. Every number in the results column below is produced by the same calculation the page runs, so you can follow it through before putting your own figures in.
What goes in
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Personal records held | 8,000 |
| Annual revenue | $2,400,000 |
| Response cost per record | $165 |
| Industry risk | Moderate (1.0x) |
| Rate per $1,000 of cover | 12 |
What comes out
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Cover worth considering main result | $1,500,000 |
| Estimated cost of a full breach | $1,320,000 |
| Estimated annual premium | $18,000 |
| Business interruption exposure | $92,308 |
| Premium as a share of revenue | 0.75% |
Handling a breach of 8,000 records could cost $1,320,000, plus $92,308 of interruption, so a limit around $1,500,000 is worth discussing at roughly $18,000 a year.
How sensitive the answer is
Holding everything else steady and changing only annual revenue, this is what happens to cover worth considering. It is worth knowing which of your inputs the answer actually hinges on, and which barely move it.
| Annual revenue ($) | Cover worth considering |
|---|---|
| $1,200,000 | $1,500,000 |
| $1,800,000 | $1,500,000 |
| $2,400,000 example above | $1,500,000 |
| $3,600,000 | $1,500,000 |
| $4,800,000 | $1,750,000 |
Every other input is held at the example value while this one changes, which is not how a real job behaves. Treat it as a guide to which number matters most, not as five separate quotes.
What each figure means
- Personal records held
- A number, between 0 and 50000000, starting at 8,000.
- Annual revenue ($)
- A money amount, starting at $2,400,000.
- Response cost per record ($)
- Notification, credit monitoring, forensics, legal.
- Industry risk
- Choose from Low: little sensitive data (0.7x), Moderate (1.0x), High: health, financial or payment data (2.2x).
- Rate per $1,000 of cover
- A number, between 0 and 60, starting at 12.
What the results tell you
| Result | What it is |
|---|---|
| Cover worth considering | The headline result. A money figure. |
| Estimated cost of a full breach | A money figure. |
| Estimated annual premium | A money figure. |
| Business interruption exposure | A money figure. |
| Premium as a share of revenue | A percentage. |
Keep going
Related calculators
Estimating is the easy part
The jobs you never hear about cost more than the ones you mis-measure. BDEVY builds the marketing, systems and automation that bring them in.