TL;DR

  • Washington law (RCW 19.255.010) requires breach notification within 30 days, and breaches affecting 500+ residents must be reported to the Attorney General
  • Annual cyber insurance premiums for SMBs typically run 1,000 to 7,500 depending on size, industry, and security posture
  • Carriers now require MFA, endpoint protection, and documented backup procedures before they'll write a policy
  • 88% of ransomware data breaches in 2024 hit small and medium businesses

The Problem

Three things changed the cyber insurance market in 2024 and 2025. First, ransomware attacks increased 34% year-over-year. Second, the average cost to recover from an attack hit 254,445 for SMBs, with some incidents running up to 7 million. Third, insurers got serious about underwriting requirements.

For Seattle and Tacoma businesses, there's an additional wrinkle: Washington has one of the stricter breach notification laws in the country.

What This Means for Seattle/Tacoma SMBs

If you're running a business in Washington:

Under RCW 19.255.010, you must notify affected residents within 30 days of discovering a breach. If 500 or more Washington residents are affected, you also have to notify the state Attorney General's office with details including the number of consumers affected, types of data exposed, timeline of the breach, and steps you've taken to contain it.

These notifications aren't optional. The AG's office publishes all submitted breach notices publicly, and non-compliance can trigger civil penalties under the Consumer Protection Act.

Typical costs if you don't have coverage:

Expense Estimated Cost
Forensic investigation 20,000 - 100,000
Legal counsel 15,000 - 50,000
Notification mailings $3 per record
Credit monitoring 10 - 30 per person annually
Business interruption 5,000 - 50,000+ per day

For a 20-person company with 2,000 customer records breached, you're looking at $50,000 minimum before factoring in downtime.

Real-World Example

A 15-person manufacturing firm in Kent got hit with ransomware through a phishing email in Q2 2025. The attackers demanded $150,000. The company didn't have cyber insurance.

Their actual costs:

  • Emergency IT response: $28,000
  • Forensic analysis: $42,000
  • Legal fees for breach notification: $18,000
  • Three days downtime: $75,000 in lost production
  • Credit monitoring for 1,200 affected contacts: $36,000

Total: $199,000, plus reputation damage they're still measuring.

A cyber policy with 1M coverage would have cost them roughly 2,400 annually.

What It Costs

Current market rates for Washington SMBs (2025 data):

Company Size Typical Coverage Annual Premium
1-10 employees 500K - 1M 1,000 - 2,000
11-25 employees 1M - 2M 2,000 - 3,500
26-50 employees 2M - 5M 3,500 - 7,500

What drives premiums up:

  • Healthcare, financial services, or legal industry
  • Previous claims or breaches
  • Weak security controls documented during underwriting
  • High revenue relative to employee count
  • Large volumes of PII or payment card data

What drives premiums down:

  • Documented MFA across all systems
  • Endpoint detection and response (EDR) deployment
  • Regular security awareness training
  • Tested backup and recovery procedures
  • Annual penetration testing or vulnerability assessments

What Carriers Require (2025 Baseline)

Almost 80% of insurers now mandate MFA before they'll write a policy. Here's the typical checklist:

  • MFA on all remote access (VPN, RDP, cloud apps)
  • MFA on email (Microsoft 365, Google Workspace)
  • MFA on privileged accounts (domain admins, local admins)
  • Endpoint protection (EDR preferred over legacy AV)
  • Documented backup procedures with offline/immutable copies
  • Security awareness training (annual minimum, quarterly preferred)
  • Incident response plan (doesn't have to be elaborate)
  • Patch management process (especially for internet-facing systems)

If you can't check these boxes, carriers either won't cover you or will charge significantly higher premiums with lower limits.

Local Carriers Writing Cyber in Washington

Several carriers actively write cyber policies for Seattle/Tacoma SMBs:

  • Coalition - Tech-forward underwriting, includes security monitoring
  • Chubb - Traditional carrier, strong for professional services firms
  • Travelers - Good for manufacturing and construction
  • Hartford - Competitive for smaller businesses
  • Hiscox - Streamlined application for companies under 50 employees

Work with a broker who specializes in cyber. Generic business insurance agents often don't understand the technical requirements or coverage gaps.

Action Checklist

  • This week: Verify MFA is enabled on Microsoft 365/Google Workspace and VPN access
  • This month: Document your backup procedures and test a restore
  • Before renewal: Get quotes from at least two cyber-focused carriers
  • Quarterly: Run security awareness training (phishing simulations count)
  • Annual: Review coverage limits against current breach costs

How RainCity Can Help

Cyber Insurance Readiness Assessment (Free, 30 minutes)

We'll review your current security posture against what carriers actually require and identify gaps that could affect your insurability or premium. You'll get:

  • Documented MFA status across your environment
  • Backup verification report
  • Carrier requirement checklist with your current status
  • Specific recommendations ranked by impact on insurability

Schedule 15-min assessment

Sources:

  • Washington RCW 19.255.010 (Data Breach Notification Law)
  • Washington Attorney General's Office breach notification guidelines
  • Verizon 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report
  • Coalition Cyber Claims Report 2025
  • Sophos State of Ransomware 2025