Personal Cyber Protection Insurance
Personal cyber protection insurance is designed to help protect you from the impacts of cyber crime such as computer hacking or a data breach.
Technology has become an integral part of our everyday lives – essential for communication. With so much reliance on the internet, new risks are introduced into our homes. The cybercrime landscape is changing fast. Today, families and individuals, not just businesses, face significant cyber threats. Protecting yourself and your family has become more important than ever from risks such as viruses, malware, cyber theft, identity and more. Personal cyber insurance can provide peace of mind for cover from these risks.
"22% of the population has been a victim of identity crime."
- $328 million is the estimated annual loss to individuals and small to medium businesses who self-reporting to ACSC’s cybercrime reporting tool, ReportCyber.1
- 22% of the population has been a victim of identity theft.2 ID theft costs each victim $3,696 on average.3
- Australians lost $643 million in 2019 from online scams and received 353,000 scam reports during the year.4
- 1 in 5 Australian young people reported being socially excluded, threatened or abused online.5
- Learn more about cyber crime and how to counter cyber crime here.
Cyber insurance for individuals and families to protect from the following:
Cyber extortion (ransomware)
Attacks or threatened attacks against your home IT infrastructure, coupled with demands for money to stop attacks.
Identity theft
The unauthorised access to and use of your identity because of a cyber event to your home IT.
Personal financial loss
Loss of funds due to cyber theft. Also includes charges or costs incurred by you due to sim-jacking or crypto-jacking.
Cyberstalking
Malicious use of your home IT to stalk, abuse, control or frighten you.
Hacking/crimeware
Malicious or unauthorised home IT infrastructure access or malware that aims to gain control of systems.
Repair to e-reputation costs
The removal or mitigation of internet publications that defame your reputation.
Cyberbullying
Electronic communication through your home IT that targets your child or teenage family member with the aim of tormenting, harassing, humiliating or otherwise targeting them.
Wage replacement benefit
Payment of lost wages as a result of taking unpaid leave in response to a cyber theft, sim-jacking, identity theft, cyberbullying or cyberstalking.
Premiums start from $99 for you and your family.
Do you need Personal Cyber Insurance?
You may be able to mitigate your own risk from cybercrime with antivirus software, credit-monitoring services and identity theft insurance. But it’s not a fool proof defence and it won’t cover your direct financial losses like fraudulent credit card charges, private tutoring due to cyberbullying or reimbursement if you need to pay a ransom to recover your hijacked personal files.
If a thief runs up your credit card bill, you could be liable for the charges. If the fraudulent charges were due to an online fraud, a personal cyber insurance policy could help cover some of these expenses.
Personal Cyber Insurance Information
Who is Emergence Insurance?
Emergence is an award-winning underwriting agency, exclusively focused on providing flexible, innovative insurance solutions to help protect Australian businesses and families against cyber risks. Learn more about Emergence and their personal cyber protection insurance here.
What is personal cyber insurance?
The cybercrime landscape is changing fast. Today, families and individuals, not just businesses, face significant cyber threats. Personal cyber insurance can help those who want to safeguard themselves in the event of cyber risks.
Who is personal cyber insurance designed for?
Individuals who use their home IT and internet connected smart devices for personal reasons. Cover extends to family members residing with you at the home address. It covers you, your family, identity, reputation, money and time when a cyber event occurs.
What can personal cyber insurance cover?
| Type of Cover | Potential Benefits |
| Cyber event cover | Provides payment of cyber event response costs from the following cyber events:
Cyber event response costs means the reasonable costs agreed to by Emergence including:
|
| Cyber bullying cover | Provides payment of additional benefit including:
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| Reputation cover | Pays repair to e-reputation costs necessitated by harmful publication. Pays legal costs incurred in connection with:
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| Cyberstalking cover | Provides payment for cyberstalking response costs including:
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| Identity theft cover | Provides payment for identity theft response costs including:
|
| Personal crime cover | Provides payment of a personal financial loss to you arising out of:
Pays wage replacement benefit required to respond to cyber theft or sim-jacking. |
View a copy of the Policy Coverage Summary here.
View a copy of the important information & policy wording here.
What doesn't personal cyber insurance cover?
Personal cyber protection insurance policy with Emergence does not cover:
- Facts or circumstances discovered by or known to you before policy inception.
- Third party liability, defence costs, bodily injury or property damage.
- Use of home IT for business or commercial activity or with respect to properties you lease to others.
What does personal cyber insurance cost?
Personal cyber protection insurance with Emergence can costs as little as $11 per month. Click here for a comprehensive Premium Calculation table.
Where can I get more information on eSafety in Australia?
You can visit the Australian Government’s eSafety website at https://www.esafety.gov.au/. The website has resources and training for parents, teachers, children and teenagers.
Statistic sources
1 Cybercrime in Australia July to September 2019, 2019, Australia Cyber
2 Trends & Issues in crime and criminal justice: The identity theft response system, 2020, Australia institute of Criminology
3 Trends & Issues in crime and criminal justice: The identity theft response system, 2020, Australia institute of Criminology
4 Targeting scams 2019, 2020, The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
5 Cyberbullying, 2017, eSafety Commissioner
Safeguard yourself and your family from damages cyber crime
Personal Cyber Insurance Claim Examples
Ransomware virus
Claim Scenario
Sarah was working on her computer when she clicked on a plausible email attachment which unleashed a malware virus. As a result, this locked all of her important files. As a result, Sarah was unable to access the files on her computer unless she paid a Ransom of $10,000.
Personal Cyber Solution
Provides cover for cyber event response costs to remove the virus, restore data, and secure the home IT. An IT expert who specialises in ransomware attacks would be appointed to remove the malware and get Sarah’s computer operational again.
Identity Theft
Claim Scenario
Daniel received an email on his computer allegedly from a popular social media platform stating he needed to verify his account by clicking on the provided link. Daniel clicked on the link, and a couple of days later he was unable to log in to his social media accounts. As it turns out, Daniel had downloaded malware onto his computer that allowed a cybercriminal to steal Daniels’ personal information and identity.
Personal Cyber Solution
Provides cover for cyber event response costs to remove the virus, restore data, and secure the home IT. The policy would also provide identity theft response costs to help the policyholder re-establish their identity and essential records. If Daniel had to take time off work to rectify his personal records and lost wages as a result, he could be entitled to wage replacement benefits as part of his claim.
Cyber crime
Claim Scenario
Robin received an email on her computer that looked like it was from her bank. The email required Robin to download an attachment to ‘verify’ her account details. It turns out, the email was not from Robin’s bank, it was a fake email from a hacker. The attachment Robin downloaded was a keylogger virus that recorded Robin’s login details for various accounts including the login to her bank account. The hacker then gained access to Robin’s bank account and transferred $5,000 from Robin’s account that could not be recovered.
Personal Cyber Solution
Provides cover for policyholders’ funds that are transferred as a result of cyber theft. Personal Cyber Protection Insurance also provides cover for cyber event response costs to remove the virus, restore data, and secure the policyholder’s home IT.
Cyberbullying
Claim Scenario
Jess just started high school. Within the first few weeks, she became a victim of bullying. It started out as a few comments, however quickly escalated to repeated harsh and vile comments on all of her social media profiles. The online bullying had a significant impact on Jess and led to her not wanting to go to school and a deterioration in her grades
Personal Cyber Solution
Provides cover for a policyholder and their spouse to attend critical guidance sessions if their child is subjected to cyber bullying. In this case, these sessions would help Jess’s family work through this ordeal and better deal with any future instances of cyberbullying.
The policy would also cover the costs to try to remove the hurtful comments. The policy would also provide a wage replacement benefit if the parents have to take unpaid time off work to attend guidance sessions or to meet with the school or other authorities to deal with the incident.
Smart device attack
Claim Scenario
Tom noticed random sounds being played and a message being read out from his Google Hub. It turns out, Tom’s Google Hub was hacked.
Personal Cyber Solution
Provides cover for cyber event response costs to remove the virus, restore data, and secure the policyholder’s home IT.
In this case, we would appoint a forensic IT investigator to assess the Google Hub system, remove malware and secure Tom’s device from further attacks.
Cyber harassment and reputation cover
Claim scenario
Carla had her home computer accessed by a cyber hacker who exfiltrated her personal emails and photos. The threat actor threatened to release the information, eventually publishing the photos and emails on a website.
Personal Cyber Solution
An IT expert would be assigned to attempt to remove Carla’s personal data from the website and to reduce the likelihood of this appearing in Google and other search engines. The policy would also provide cover for legal costs to advise Carla what legal remedies she may have and the steps she could take in response to this incident.
|
Example |
Claim Scenario |
Personal Cyber Solution |
|
Ransomware virus |
Sarah was working on her computer when she clicked on a plausible email attachment which unleashed a malware virus. As a result, this locked all of her important files. As a result, Sarah was unable to access the files on her computer unless she paid a Ransom of $10,000. |
Provides cover for cyber event response costs to remove the virus, restore data, and secure the home IT. An IT expert who specialises in ransomware attacks would be appointed to remove the malware and get Sarah’s computer operational again. |
|
Identity theft |
Daniel received an email on his computer allegedly from a popular social media platform stating he needed to verify his account by clicking on the provided link. Daniel clicked on the link, and a couple of days later he was unable to log in to his social media accounts. As it turns out, Daniel had downloaded malware onto his computer that allowed a cybercriminal to steal Daniels’ personal information and identity. |
Provides cover for cyber event response costs to remove the virus, restore data, and secure the home IT. The policy would also provide identity theft response costs to help the policyholder re-establish their identity and essential records. If Daniel had to take time off work to rectify his personal records and lost wages as a result, he could be entitled to wage replacement benefits as part of his claim. |
|
Cyber crime |
Robin received an email on her computer that looked like it was from her bank. The email required Robin to download an attachment to ‘verify’ her account details. It turns out, the email was not from Robin’s bank, it was a fake email from a hacker. The attachment Robin downloaded was a keylogger virus that recorded Robin’s login details for various accounts including the login to her bank account. The hacker then gained access to Robin’s bank account and transferred $5,000 from Robin’s account that could not be recovered. |
Provides cover for policyholders’ funds that are transferred as a result of cyber theft. Personal Cyber Protection Insurance also provides cover for cyber event response costs to remove the virus, restore data, and secure the policyholder’s home IT. |
|
Cyberbullying |
Jess just started high school. Within the first few weeks, she became a victim of bullying. It started out as a few comments, however quickly escalated to repeated harsh and vile comments on all of her social media profiles. The online bullying had a significant impact on Jess and led to her not wanting to go to school and a deterioration in her grades |
Provides cover for a policyholder and their spouse to attend critical guidance sessions if their child is subjected to cyber bullying. In this case, these sessions would help Jess’s family work through this ordeal and better deal with any future instances of cyberbullying. The policy would also cover the costs to try to remove the hurtful comments. The policy would also provide a wage replacement benefit if the parents have to take unpaid time off work to attend guidance sessions or to meet with the school or other authorities to deal with the incident. |
|
Smart device attack |
Tom noticed random sounds being played and a message being read out from his Google Hub. It turns out, Tom’s Google Hub was hacked. |
Provides cover for cyber event response costs to remove the virus, restore data, and secure the policyholder’s home IT. In this case, we would appoint a forensic IT investigator to assess the Google Hub system, remove malware and secure Tom’s device from further attacks. |
|
Cyber harassment and reputation cover |
Carla had her home computer accessed by a cyber hacker who exfiltrated her personal emails and photos. The threat actor threatened to release the information, eventually publishing the photos and emails on a website. |
An IT expert would be assigned to attempt to remove Carla’s personal data from the website and to reduce the likelihood of this appearing in Google and other search engines. The policy would also provide cover for legal costs to advise Carla what legal remedies she may have and the steps she could take in response to this incident. |
Premiums start from $99 for you and your family.
Terms, conditions, limits and exclusions apply to the product(s) referred to above. Product(s) can be purchased through us. Emergence Insurance Pty Ltd “the underwriter” (ABN 46 133 037 153, AFSL 329634) distributes the Personal Cyber Protection Insurance product as agent for the insurer, certain underwriters at Lloyd’s. Any advice provided in this document is general advice only and has been prepared without taking account of your objectives, financial situation or needs. Having regard to these, you should consider the appropriateness of the advice, Important Information and Policy Wording available here before making a decision to acquire, or continue to hold, the product.
