The year 2021 had the dubious distinction of being the most prolific for ransomware on record, and the onslaught didn’t stop in 2022. It’s now estimated that every 14 seconds, a business falls victim to a ransomware attack. Ransomware attacks aren’t just happening more often.
The costs associated with a cyberattack can be significant, especially if a company does not have an Incident Response plan that addresses risk. The one-two punch of a cyberattack can be devastating. There is the breach and then the related mitigation costs. Implementing a comprehensive Incident Response (IR) game plan into a worst-case-scenario should not be a post-breach scramble. And when that IR strategy includes insurance, it also must address a business’s level of cyber risk.
A 2020 survey of European insurance executives showed that some 89 percent of participants expected digitization in the insurance sector, this silver lines the existing process in the adoption of digital channels by the insurance sector. The insurance sector has been under pressure to enhance its online insurance market for some time now.
With the alarming increase in cyberattacks across the globe, it is becoming evident that no organization is immune to cyberthreats. As a result, there is a question pending in the minds of IT security leaders: What happens to their organization in case of a cyberattack?
In the past, purchasing cybersecurity insurance was considered a luxury rather than a necessity. However, as the number of cyber attacks continues to grow, many educational institutions have started to buy insurance policies to cover the damaging costs of malware and ransomware attacks. The education sector saw the most cyber attacks in 2021 and 2022 compared to every other industry, including healthcare and finance.
Cyberattacks are growing in prevalence and sophistication, and so are the damage costs associated with these events. According to a 2022 cost of data breach report, the average damage cost of a data breach has reached a record high of USD 4.35 million. Provoked by increased data breach damage costs, a growing number of US businesses are partnering with Cybersecurity Insurers, who, in turn, respond to this increased demand by inflating cyber insurance premiums.
Cyberattacks have become an unavoidable part of the technology landscape in recent years with attacks like ransomware, phishing, and whaling reaching an all-time high. According to IBM’s Cost of Data Breach Report 2022, the average cost of a ransomware attack is $4.54 million and the average cost of a breach in the US alone is $9.44 million. Cyber insurance is important in these instances, because it helps cover the financial losses incurred.
