Smithville insures against cyber crime

SMITHVILLE — The Village of Smithville took a step to protect itself from cyber criminals Monday night at a council meeting when it renewed its Public Entity Pool insurance policy for a period of three years through the Hummel Group.

According to Smithville Mayor Tom Poulson, the village will receive $250,000 of “cyber” coverage at no additional cost. “This is something that the insurance company added into the policy,” he said. “It specifically covers cyber issues relevant to the internet and our records. Nowadays there are people out there actively working to infiltrate public records.”

Wayne County is no stranger to cyber crime. In 2017, the Wooster-Ashland Regional Council of Governments was hacked, and more than 200,000 records were compromised. In 2018, Wooster Community Hospital discovered a threat in the course of its routine computer system monitoring and suspended portions of its systems so the threat could be investigated.

Eric McDowell, a certified insurance counselor and business risk advisor for the Hummel Group, said that if a hacker would break into the village’s digital records, the insurance policy would also address cyber extortion.

“We have actually seen extortion happen (locally),” McDowell said. “The hacker will get into the system, shut it down and demand (a sum) of money to release it. It is amazing how sophisticated the hackers are. They are literally inside computer systems for months at a time before they do anything.”

If a breach occurs, the village would ultimately be responsible for notification expenses and identity theft cost. “If a citizen suffered a financial loss, they could hold the village liable,” McDowell continued. “If that happened, this coverage would step in.”

One of the facets that makes the policy appealing is that, for the $250,000 coverage amount, the village doesn’t need to implement any additional hardware or software to its existing network.

“If they would want to buy up to a higher amount, there would need to be a detailed questionnaire filled out detailing firewalls and internal controls,” said McDowell. “Generally, these policies also cover paper documents.”

McDowell warns that no organization is safe from online criminal activity. “I would recommend that everyone from an individual to the largest corporation be aware of their online exposure these days,” he said. “I get an industry newsletter each morning and there are always two or three articles about cyber claims. As an insurance agent, cyber claims are what keeps me up at night.”

Reporter Dan Starcher can be reached at 330-287-1626 or dstarcher@the-daily-record.com. He is on Facebook at www.facebook.com/​WoosterWriter and Twitter at www.twitter.com/​danstarcher.

CREDIT: DAN STARCHER