The Hanover Insurance Group is targeting small to mid-sized businesses with new coverage options designed to protect them from data breaches and cyber attacks.

These are enhancements for business owner’s policies, to both first and third party coverage options, according to the Massachusetts-based property/casualty holding company.

The beefed up business owner’s policy data breach coverage offers first party protection for covered direct costs a business faces when a data breach occurs. Notification and investigation expenses (credit monitoring and forensic analysis), cyber business interruption and extra data breach-related expenses, breach restoration expenses and costs such as legal services, public relations, fraud alert and data breach ransom and reward are taken care of under this option.

Similarly, The Hanover’s new cyber liability coverage addresses defense and liability protection for claims brought against insureds by a third party, including privacy and security liability (for third party claims stemming from a privacy or security breach) and cyber media liability, where electronic media breaches affect areas such as infringement, trademark, plagiarism, invasion of privacy, libel, defamation and slander.

The Hanover said it is distributing its new cyber and data breach products exclusively through independent insurance agents, as it does with its other offerings.

“With Hackers and malicious programs becoming increasingly sophisticated, data breaches represent financial, reputational and operational threats to businesses,” Michael Keane, president, small commercial at The Hanover, said in prepared remarks.

Separately, The Hanover released 2015 second-quarter earnings and the results are generally positive.

Net income for the quarter came in at $120.7 million, or $2.68 per diluted share, up from $82.6 million, or $1.84 per diluted share over the same period in 2014. The combined ratio also improved slightly, landing at 95.7, versus 96.8 in the 2014 first quarter. Excluding catastrophes, the combined ratio hit 91.8, compared to 92.1 over the same year-ago period.

The Hanover said that net premiums written reached more than $1.29 billion, up from over $1.27 billion a year ago. Domestic business growth and price increases in commercial and personal lines helped fuel the results.

Net investment income is also a bright spot for the insurer, landing at $70.7 million, up 5.5 percent from the $67 million generated in the 2014 second quarter. The Hanover said that the numbers stemmed mostly from the impact of investing higher operating cash flows, plus investing in higher yielding asset classes such as limited partnerships and commercial mortgage loan participated. On the other hand, lower fixed maturity new money yields partially offset some of those gains.

Source: The Hanover Insurance Group