Technology insurance for clients' losses and cyber events.

Technology packages combine professional indemnity, public and products liability, and cyber cover. The liability sections address client claims, injury and property damage. Cyber sections can cover claims from people whose data is exposed, as well as your own costs after an incident.

On the packages we place, those costs can include:

• the specialists who find out how someone got in and shut them out
• restoring your data and the systems it runs on
• the income you lose while those systems are down
• an extortion demand, and the work of responding to it
• money stolen from you in a cyber crime
• money a staff member is tricked into paying on a fake invoice, where the package includes it

Some packages cover lost income after a server failure or operating error, as well as an attack. That may cover income only: rebuilding your server or replacing damaged hardware can remain your cost. A system-design error may fall outside the operating-error cover.

Check the sections and limits selected in your schedule. A cover described in the policy wording may not have been bought. The schedule and any agreed changes show what your business actually holds.

The IT liability policies we place have no separate cyber section. Some exclude cyber outright, including bank-detail fraud. We check the wording, schedule and any changes agreed with the insurer before explaining what your policy covers.

We compare a technology package with IT liability and separate cyber insurance: the cover, gaps and cost. If a limit or term does not suit, we discuss it with the insurer. Our IT liability insurance page explains that cover and certificates of currency.

Compare a package with IT liability and separate cyber cover if:

• you hold your clients' data, and a breach of it would leave you with costs of your own
• your income stops when your network stops
• clients now ask for evidence of cyber cover as well as your professional indemnity certificate
• your contracts carry service credits, delay payments or warranty obligations
• you hold administrative access to other businesses' systems

For a business selling software by subscription, our guide to software developer insurance explains the options.

Some IT liability policies pay defence costs in addition to the claim limit. Some also restore the limit once for a later unrelated claim. A package may treat these differently, so compare both benefits before switching.

The minimums a government IT contract asks a supplier to hold are in our guide to government IT contract insurance requirements.

Guarantees can extend your liability beyond the cover. Service credits and liquidated damages are fixed sums for missed deadlines or service levels, and may also be uninsured. A package may cover only unintentional contract breaches, or require an assumed liability such as an indemnity to be in writing. Endorsements are written changes to the policy. They can remove cover otherwise offered by the wording.

If an attacker gets into the tools you use to manage clients' systems, several clients could be disrupted at once. You could face their claims as well as your own recovery costs.

Some small business cyber policies exclude claims arising from the paid IT services you provide. Check that exclusion carefully if you run managed services.

Dependent business interruption covers an outage at a supplier you rely on, such as a cloud, monitoring or backup provider. On the packages we place, it excludes national or global internet, power or satellite outages. Some also exclude regional or telecommunications outages. Check whether the section is included and what events it covers.

A claim can involve your own loss, a client's allegation, or both. If we look after your policy, our specialist claims manager takes it up with the insurer, with your broker involved throughout. We chase delays and explain the insurer's response. Where the wording and evidence give us grounds to challenge it, we do.