BY JAMES PILCHER
Associated Press Writer

Steve Haase sees his new company as the next Lloyd's of London, which got is start protecting businesses entering the new frontier of overseas trading. Haase's company wants to do the same for Internet's shipping lanes.

INSUREtrust.com is one of the first insurance firms to indemnify companies doing business on the information superhighway.

The Atlanta-based firm provides liability coverage for all aspects of computer operations - whether they come as a "crash" caused by a software/hardware breakdown, or a hack from an outside source.

"There have been three major movements within business - waterborne trade, the Industrial Revolution and the Information Age," said Haase, chief executive officer for the year-old company considered the first to cater entirely to computer risk-management. "It really looks like we're doing something that's really cutting edge, but we're really applying old concepts to a new medium."

INSUREtrust.com protects companies against anything from computer crashes or malfunctions to "hacks" into networks from outside invaders and the loss of data or money due to any of the above.

Policies can also protect against potential copyright infringements on Web sites and lawsuits from customers whose shipments were lost or whose privacy was violated, or against losses incurred if a disgruntled employee shuts down the system.

Joanne Orfanos of the National Association of Independent Insurers said several companies have begun offering piecemeal Internet protection policies, but INSUREtrust.com is the first company to specifically cater to e-businesses.

"What they've done is taken a step toward legitimizing the Internet and making it safer," said Blaine Burnham, a former National Security Administration computer security specialist who now heads Georgia Tech's Information Security Center.

But there remains a degree of perhaps healthy insecurity. While INSUREtrust.com has signed up with at least a dozen companies, several declined interview requests, fearing the publicity of being "insured" would make them likely targets for hacker attacks.

"There are a lot of big name companies out there - household names, mind you - who don't want the publicity of a hack," said Spence Hoole, an executive with Aon Risk Management, which has bought INSUREtrust.com policies for clients. "That's why INSUREtrust.com, or at least a form of it, will be around for a while."

For an annual premium of between $5,000 to $250,000, companies can buy coverage of up to $25 million a year. But INSUREtrust.com goes further than financial protection.

A company's computer network security system must pass muster before INSUREtrust.com will take it on. A former Pentagon computer expert helps conduct the inspections, and Haase said they have turned down potential customers.

For those that do pass, the company offers consulting on how to improve network security, and those that take the advice can lower their premiums. A lot of companies need a lot of work, said Rick Davis, who co-founded INSUREtrust.com with Haase.

"We used to be surprised by the levels of insecurity and noncontrol when it came to networks at the corporate level," said Davis, a former insurance agent who is now the company's information and development officer. "It was quickly obvious to us and is now becoming obvious to anyone in the industry that risk management is sorely lacking in e-business."

Haase said the privately held company is at about the break-even point, and expanding rapidly, hiring 13 new employees since August. He said the company continues to target emerging technology firms - "so we can be involved in the full life cycle of an e-business," Haase said, adding other potential customers include hospitals, Internet service providers, data entry and storage firms as well as anyone selling anything over the Web.

"We see a movement toward offering warranties that certain security measures work, or a transaction is completely safe, or whatever," Haase said. "What we can do is validate those warranties. And that will take e-business one step closer to the legitimacy it really needs right now."