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I view it a matter of when, not if, large companies will be hacked. A list of breaches from this year alone shows hacks at Truist, JPMorgan Chase, and Bank of America. I don’t think the likes of Vanguard, Fidelty or Swchab are immune. And while I practice reasonable infosec hygene (2FA wherever possible, etc) I KNOW I’m not immune: the computers, smartphones, etc that I use to manage my accounts can be hacked.
That said, I’m wondering if there is some sort of liability insurance that can be purchased to protect against, say, someone hacking my computer and draining my investments or failure/mistakes at the various custodians (Vanguard, etc.)
There seems to be some availability of personal cyber insurance that typically covers identity theft, ransomware, and data breaches as well as insurance for crypto assets, but I’m not seeing anything that protects you when 7 figure assets just go poof.
Has anyone purchased personal cyber insurance? What was covered?
Any recommendations for policies that cover financial losses from hacking?
Am I being overly paranoid?
Fidelity offers a ‘Money Transfer Lockdown’ where you can add some or all of your accounts. When you want to make a transfer, you’ll need to remove that account from the lockdown. Then after the transfer is made, you can add the account back again. I only make one or two transfers a year, so it’s not a big deal. On the main page, go to ‘Accounts & Trade’, then ‘Security Settings’. There’s a list of security settings that you may want to turn on, like multi-factor authentication or security text alerts. On the right side is ‘Money Transfer Lockdown’.
Excellent! I wasn’t aware of that. Thanks for mentioning it.
A quick web search indicates that multiple insurers offer this coverage, but for rather limited amounts of assets. I’d rather trust in Fidelity’s assurance to reimburse “for losses from unauthorized activity in your Covered Accounts occurring through no fault of your own.” In either case though, I wonder, how high would the bar be set for proving this?
My accounts are in lockdown mode when I’m not transacting. I use VPN and have credit freezes. My user names are also configured like passwords whenever possible. I attend monthly cybersecurity tech sessions at the library. More tech immersion than I ever wanted, and possibly to little avail, but I figure that this makes me more alert to scams.
Great question. I don’t have an answer, but i’m also interested in seeing the responses. I just looked up my State Farm homeowners policy and they offer a rider for Cyber protection. It is $25 a year and covers identity restoration and some level of fraud loss, up to $50,000. But I don’t see that it covers loss of significant assets. I don’t believe the SIPC and FDIC cover cyber losses, just failed institutions.
I’ll be interested to hear if coverage like this exists. I don’t think you’re being overly paranoid, but maybe that’s because I’m overly paranoid.