Do IT professionals have insurance for lost data?

kal7

Hi all,

friend recently lost all her data for her business because her IT provider failed to back up, when asked repeatedly to do so.

Disaster recovery proved no help.

Would an IT professional or business hold insurance to cover her loss of data and resulting loss of business/time?

Mod feel free to move to legal discussion if that would be more appropriate.

Thanks.

banie01

What is her S.L.A with her IT provider?
Does it include a backup/recovery service?
If it does not, your friend is out of luck on pursuing compensation for the lack of a backup as if its not in the contract, Data backup becomes your friend's own responsibility.

If her S.L.A does include backup and recovery then her contract will also include what penalties are incurred or compensation would be owed in the case of the providers loss of data.

The S.L.A is important here because if Backup and recovery were not included in the contract then no matter how many times your friend asked for the backup service, without a contract variance and new rates to include the service...
The IT provider was under no obligation to provide the service.

TLDR: It all depends on your friends contract with the provider.

dudara

You mention that your friend has a business, which means that this is not a Consumer Issue. I'll move it instead to E&BM forum.

As the previous poster has mentioned, your friend should check the T&Cs of her contract and SLA with the IT provider. These will set out the scope of services to be provided and the promised response times/coverage levels.

kal7

thanks banie01,

her contract certainly provided back up and recovery. I will try and find out what (or if there are) penalties are in contract.

The IT guy tried a specialist recovery service in dublin to no avail, then said sorry I can do no more.

Wondered if it would be usual to carry insurance to cover loss of earnings in this sort of case.

pedronomix

Liability is not connected to insurance but if the supplier has no assets/money, it could be vital!!

EIREX

That's awful news OP. This will probably go down to the small print in the contract with the supplier and their Terms and Conditions as to whether they have a get out clause.

Your friend needs to comb through them and ask a solicitor for a view on any terms that are ambiguous.

pedroeibar1

kal7 wrote: »

Hi all,

friend recently lost all her data for her business because her IT provider failed to back up, when asked repeatedly to do so.

Disaster recovery proved no help.

Would an IT professional or business hold insurance to cover her loss of data and resulting loss of business/time?

Mod feel free to move to legal discussion if that would be more appropriate.

Thanks.

What you have described is a very complex issue because much depends on the type of information lost and what you mean by "lost". Both she and her IT outsource people could be open to substantial fines should the lost data contain personal details of customers, bank details, etc.,. (A few years ago an insurance co in the UK physically lost a back-up tape with a few thousand names/account details on it and was fined a couple of £million!)

To answer your question on insurance, yes, frequently small business policies include "lost data protection" when that happens as a result of an insured loss, e.g., a fire or a virus that destroys a computer system/server and it usually includes cover for loss of income due to that loss. If the limit of the amount covered by the policy is too low, additional cover can be bought.

The friend needs to look at her contract with the IT service co, look at her business insurance policy and if any of the lost data is covered by dataprotection requirements she needs to go to her solicitor.

Graham

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

What you have described is a very complex issue because much depends on the type of information lost and what you mean by "lost". Both she and her IT outsource people could be open to substantial fines should the lost data contain personal details of customers, bank details, etc.,. (A few years ago an insurance co in the UK physically lost a back-up tape with a few thousand names/account details on it and was fined a couple of £million!)

To answer your question on insurance, yes, frequently small business policies include "lost data protection" when that happens as a result of an insured loss, e.g., a fire or a virus that destroys a computer system/server and it usually includes cover for loss of income due to that loss. If the limit of the amount covered by the policy is too low, additional cover can be bought.

The friend needs to look at her contract with the IT service co, look at her business insurance policy and if any of the lost data is covered by dataprotection requirements she needs to go to her solicitor.

In this scenario I took 'lost' to mean it has been wiped/deleted/destroyed rather than it's been left somewhere for somebody else to find.

kal7

yes lost as in destroyed, no longer recorded anywhere.

Was really looking to see if industry standard would be to hold insurance for such an instance.

Would be looking to claim on insurance or if not in place,seek legal remedy from the IT provider.

Solicitor has been asked for opinion.

Thanks all for your view points

Trojan

A lot of professional consultants would have professional indemnity insurance.