(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The hacking of Web sites such as Yahoo!, eBay and Amazon.com illustrates the fact that even the largest Web sites are vulnerable to intrusion.

While the Internet has reduced cumbersome chores to the click of a button, this technological age has also produced a new breed of criminals.

"Bonnie and Clyde are now armed with mouse pads instead of guns," said Candysse Miller, executive director for the Insurance Information Network of California (IINC). "While a mouse pad can't kill you, it can kill your business."

In 1998, more than half of all businesses reported computer intrusion; losses to American corporations amounted to more than $200 billion. This new-age graffiti has spawned a new type of insurance that can protect businesses against high-tech thieves.

While most business-insurance policies exclude damage caused by cybercrimes, anti-hacker policies cover losses such as theft of securities or tangible property via computer, damage to data or software, and business-interruption expenses.

Companies are generally required to undergo a computer-security assessment to determine their amount of risk before obtaining insurance. A business with average risks that purchases $12 million worth of coverage would pay approximately $25,000 a year.

IINC offers the following suggestions to help businesses combat cybercrime:

• Assess information assets and vulnerabilities, and identify potential enemies;
  
• Establish company policies about who has access to what information and publish them in the employee handbook;
  
• Change employee passwords periodically;
  
• Install an intrusion-detection system on your computer;
  
• If an attack occurs, call in a computer forensics investigator, who could find "electronic fingerprints."

The damage caused by the breach of security by a single hacker can be in the millions of dollars. While anti-hacker insurance can pick up the tab for those losses, the most valuable effect is that it forces companies to become more involved in protecting their computer systems.

The Insurance Information Network of California is a nonprofit, nonlobbying media-relations organization supported by the property/casualty insurance industry. IINC has spokespeople available in Northern and Southern California.