Houston Cyber Liability Insurance

The Naknan heritage

Before "cybersecurity" was an insurance product, it was a family business.

My grandfather Douglas Finley founded Naknan Inc. in Houston in 1997. The work started with satellite control software. It evolved into endpoint security. Their flagship product, Security Assistant, was built to make the new world of the internet safer and more secure.

In 1997, the public internet was four years old. Most American households did not yet have email. The term "endpoint security" was not yet standard industry vocabulary. Naknan was already there.

The company started where engineering precision was unforgiving. Satellite control. Then it moved into the work that would define the next two decades. Protecting the machines and networks that the rest of the world was only beginning to depend on. Security Assistant became the flagship. The mission stayed the same. Make the new world of the internet safer and more secure.

When the cyber liability insurance market finally caught up to that mission, it caught up with us. We did not add cyber to a product list. We grew up in it. That heritage shapes how we read a cyber policy, how we audit a security stack, and how we evaluate a carrier's claims handling reputation. We treat cyber coverage the way we were taught to treat critical systems. With watchfulness and respect for what is at stake.

This is family DNA, not a product line we added last quarter.

Documentary evidence

The story is provable. Here is the proof.

A claim is what most agencies offer. Documentation is what we offer. Below are the certificates, photographs, and federal acknowledgments that trace the engineering lens from NASA satellite operations in the 1970s to the cyber liability coverage we write for Texas businesses today.

"My grandfather, Douglas Finley. The lens runs in the family."— Charles D. McDade, Agency Owner

1975

NASA Apollo-Soyuz Certificate

NASA recognized S.D. Finley by name for contributions to the Apollo-Soyuz Mission, the first American-Soviet joint spaceflight. NASCOM Communications Network era.

1977

NASA Viking Mission Group Achievement Award

Deep Space Network Operations and Engineering Team. Continuous telemetry, command, and tracking support across 200 million miles of deep space between Earth and Mars.

1989

Advanced Systems Engineering

Doug Finley completed advanced technology training in Systems Engineering. San Diego. Five years before the public internet existed. The discipline that would become cybersecurity.

Early 1990s

Industry Recognition

Doug Finley working at the intersection of mainframe computing and emerging network systems. Eight years before founding Naknan Inc. in Houston.

2011

DHS Industrial Control Systems Cybersecurity

Department of Homeland Security Control Systems Security Program. Intermediate Cybersecurity for Industrial Control Systems. The discipline that protects power grids and refineries.

2011

Houston Critical Infrastructure Symposium

Joint Critical Infrastructure Partnership Symposium hosted in Houston. DHS, FBI Cyber Division, and private partnership leaders. The federal cybersecurity policy table.

From Apollo-Soyuz to industrial control systems cybersecurity. The same lens. Three generations. The cyber liability coverage we write for your business inherits all of it.

Who this is built for

Texas businesses that hold real data, sign real contracts, and carry real exposure.

Cyber risk is not coming. Cyber risk is here. The contracts your clients send you already require coverage. The carriers you bid against already carry it. The question is whether your policy will hold up when you actually need it.

Healthcare and Medical Practices Law Firms and Legal Services Accounting and Tax Firms Wealth Management and RIAs Real Estate and Title Companies Construction and Engineering Manufacturing and Industrial SaaS and Tech Companies E-commerce and Online Retail Nonprofits with Donor Data Schools and Education Programs Texas Businesses with $1M+ Revenue

What real cyber coverage actually does

Four pillars define a real cyber liability policy.

Anything missing one of these is a hole, not a product. Most cheap cyber policies cover one or two pillars and leave the others stranded. Real coverage carries all four.

Breach Response

Forensics, legal counsel, customer notification, credit monitoring, and public relations. The first 48 hours of a breach decide the next 48 weeks.

Strong policies include a panel of pre-approved breach coaches who answer the phone at 2am.

First-party coverage

Business Interruption

Revenue lost while systems are down. Includes contingent business interruption when your vendor or cloud provider is the one breached, not you.

Most cheap policies cover only direct interruption. Real policies cover the supply chain.

Direct + contingent BI

Cyber Extortion

Ransomware payments, negotiation specialists, and crypto wallet handling. Carriers vary wildly on whether they will pay an extortion demand and under what conditions.

The fine print here is the policy. We read it before you sign it.

Read the exclusions before signing

Liability and Regulatory Defense

Customer lawsuits, regulatory penalties, HIPAA fines, Texas Identity Theft Enforcement and Protection Act exposure, and PCI DSS assessments. Third-party liability is where uncovered claims bankrupt small businesses.

We size limits to your contract obligations and your data footprint.

Third-party coverage

Hear the conversation

"It is great to have good insurance. It is better to never get into the accident."

A 2021 cybersecurity webinar with Tony Alberti. Recorded before most independent agents in the country had publicly spoken about cyber liability. Some of us were already talking about it because the family had been working on it for two decades.

Why this matters

Imagine the worst day a Texas business owner can have. The phone call from your IT person on a Tuesday morning. The systems are down. The customer data is gone. The ransom demand is on the screen. The first call you make is to your insurance agent. The first thing they ask is whether you had multi-factor authentication enabled.

If the answer is no, your policy may not cover what just happened. Not because the carrier is being unfair. Because you skipped the work that would have prevented it.

That conversation, in 2021, is the conversation we are still having with Texas business owners today. The work that prevents the bad day is the same work that protects the policy. Both jobs. Always.

Show

Taking the Scare Out of Cyber

Host

Tony Alberti

Year

2021

Three steps from the conversation that still hold today.

Step 01

Training

Treat cybersecurity preparedness like teaching a teenager to drive. You would not send a sixteen-year-old onto the freeway without practice. Do not send your team into the digital workplace without training.

Step 02

Prevention

Multi-factor authentication. Strong password policies. Endpoint detection. Off-site backups. Carriers view skipping these as negligence. Prevention work changes the price you pay and the coverage you can buy.

Step 03

Coverage

Cyber insurance is the safety net under the work. Sized to your data footprint, your contract obligations, and your security posture. Built for the day the prevention almost held but did not quite.

Two voices. One position.

Cyber risk is not just an IT problem. It is a business problem.

"My grandfather's company wrote cybersecurity software in Houston decades before the industry called it cybersecurity. We carry that lens into every cyber policy we write. To be blunt. This is family DNA, not a product line we added last quarter."

Charles D. McDade, LUTCF

Agency Owner · McDade Insurance

"Cyber claims are a contracts problem, a payroll problem, a regulatory problem, and a customer trust problem. Most cyber policies look the same on paper. They are not. We read the exclusions before you sign anything. That is how a risk advisor protects a Texas business."

Dallas Downey, CLCS

Commercial Risk Advisor · McDade Insurance

Two ways to start.

Most calls start one of two ways. Pick the one that fits where you are.

Path 1 · Coverage Review

Free Cyber Coverage Review

Already have a cyber policy? Send it to us. We will read every exclusion, sub-limit, and waiting period. We will tell you what you are buying and what you are not. Most reviews surface gaps the original agent never explained. No charge. No obligation.

Path 2 · New Coverage

New Cyber Quote

No cyber coverage yet? Start with a conversation. We walk through your data footprint, your contract obligations, and your security stack. Then we match limits and carriers to the actual risk. Contracts requiring $1M, $3M, or $5M cyber minimums are common in Texas.

What Texas business owners say

Real reviews from real Texas businesses.

★★★★★

"Dallas pulled apart our cyber policy in the first call. Showed us a sub-limit that would have capped our breach response at $50,000 on a $2 million policy. Rebuilt the whole thing for less than what we were paying."

Healthcare Practice Houston, TX

★★★★★

"We needed $3 million cyber to keep a major contract. Our previous broker took six weeks to come back with a quote that did not even meet the requirements. McDade had the right policy bound in nine days."

Engineering Firm The Woodlands, TX

★★★★★

"Charles told us the Naknan story on the first call. It was not a sales pitch. It was the reason he understood our security stack better than the IT consultants we were already paying. That changed how we thought about coverage."

Wealth Management Firm Spring, TX

Frequently asked questions

Cyber Liability questions we get every week.

What does cyber liability insurance cover for a Texas business?

A standard cyber liability policy covers breach response costs, business interruption from a cyber event, ransomware and extortion payments, network security liability, privacy liability for stolen client data, regulatory defense, and media liability. Coverage limits, sub-limits, and exclusions vary widely between carriers, so reading the policy matters more than reading the price. Most general liability policies now include explicit cyber exclusions, which makes a standalone cyber policy the only real protection.

Is cyber liability insurance required by law in Texas?

No state law requires cyber coverage, but contracts often do. Vendor agreements, government contracts, healthcare partnerships, financial services relationships, and many client master service agreements now require cyber liability minimums of $1 million to $5 million. Your contract obligations drive the limit, not the law. Texas businesses without cyber coverage often lose contracts to competitors who carry it.

How much does cyber liability insurance cost in Houston?

Cyber liability premium for Houston small businesses ranges from $1,200 to $7,500 per year for $1 million of coverage. Pricing depends on revenue, industry, data volume, security controls, and prior claims. Healthcare, legal, financial services, and e-commerce price higher. Strong security controls including multi-factor authentication and endpoint detection lower the premium. Without basic controls, coverage is limited or unavailable.

What is the difference between first-party and third-party cyber coverage?

First-party coverage pays your own losses including breach response, business interruption, and ransomware payments. Third-party coverage pays your liability to others including stolen client data, regulatory penalties, and customer lawsuits. A real cyber policy needs both. Many cheap policies cover only one side and leave the business owner exposed when the other hits.

Does my general liability policy cover a cyber breach?

Almost never. Most general liability policies now include explicit cyber exclusions. The Insurance Services Office introduced cyber exclusion endorsements over a decade ago and most carriers apply them by default. Coverage for a breach, ransomware event, or stolen client data requires a standalone cyber liability policy. Counting on your GL is one of the most common and expensive cyber coverage mistakes Texas businesses make.

What security controls do carriers require to issue a cyber policy?

Most carriers require multi-factor authentication on email and remote access, endpoint detection and response, regular off-site backups, and basic employee phishing training. Higher-limit policies also require privileged access management, encrypted backups, written incident response plans, and patch management procedures. Without these, coverage is limited, expensive, or unavailable. Strong controls lower premium and raise available limits.

Cybersecurity is in our DNA.
Coverage is what we built around it.

Before "cybersecurity" was an insurance product, it was a family business.