One bad deploy and you're the one being sued
You write the code, so you carry the risk. A migration that drops a table, an integration that overcharges customers, a deadline that slips and blows up a launch — when a client loses money because of your work, they come after you. Professional indemnity and cyber cover, built for developers.
Where a developer actually gets exposed
It's rarely a dramatic hack. It's the ordinary mistakes of shipping software for money — a bug that costs a client real revenue, data that leaks on your watch, or a scope argument that ends up with lawyers. Standard business insurance doesn't touch any of it.
The migration that wiped live data
You run a data migration for a client's e-commerce platform. A bad assumption in the script silently drops three months of order history. It's only noticed a week later, after the backups have rotated.
The client can't fulfil orders, loses customers, and sends you an invoice for the reconstruction work and lost sales. They argue it was your negligence.
The integration bug that overcharged customers
A rounding error in the payment integration you built double-charges a few hundred of your client's customers over a weekend. Chargebacks, refunds and angry reviews follow.
Your client wears the reputational hit and passes the remediation cost — and their own customers' threatened claims — back to you.
The breach in the app you shipped
An endpoint you wrote leaks a client's user records — emails, names, hashed passwords. Under the Privacy Act your client must notify every affected person and the OAIC, and they say your code was the cause.
Who's going to ask you for it
The contract won't start without it
For most developers, cover isn't optional risk management — it's a gate to getting the work:
- Client MSAs and SOWs commonly require $1M–$5M professional indemnity, sometimes $10M for enterprise or government work.
- Recruitment and contracting agencies won't place you on a client site without a current certificate of currency.
- Enterprise and government panels set minimum PI and cyber limits before you're onboarded.
If you contract through agencies, you likely can't start a placement until the certificate lands.
The exclusion developers assume is covered
Two things catch developers out. First, known problems: a claim arising from a bug you were already aware of, or a circumstance you could have reported earlier, is typically excluded — cover responds to what you didn't see coming, not what you sat on.
Second, liquidated damages and penalty clauses: if you sign a contract promising penalties beyond your actual legal liability, insurers generally won't cover the extra you agreed to.
Common questions
I'm a solo contractor — do I really need this?
If you write software for clients under contract, yes. You carry personal liability for the work, and most agencies and clients now require a certificate of currency before you can start. It's usually the cheapest way to unblock a placement.
Isn't this just professional indemnity?
PI is the core, but developer work also carries cyber and data-breach exposure and occasional IP risk. ICT cover combines professional indemnity with cyber and tech-specific extensions so there isn't a gap between policies.
What limit should I get?
Match it to your contracts. Read the insurance clause in your client MSA or the agency agreement — it will name a minimum (often $1M–$5M). If you're unsure, we'll read it with you before you buy.
Does it cover code I wrote before I was insured?
Professional indemnity is claims-made and usually responds to claims first made while you're insured, provided the issue wasn't already known to you. Prior known problems are excluded, so it's worth getting cover in place before a dispute surfaces, not after.
A client wants a certificate of currency — how fast can I get one?
Once you're bound, a certificate is quick to issue. If a placement is waiting on it, tell us and we'll prioritise it.