Cyber Insurance: What You Should Know

As ransomware attacks continue to rise, cyber insurance is becoming a very important component for businesses of any size.

Cyber insurance simply is an insurance policy but instead of protecting your home or vehicle, this type of insurance helps mitigate any potential loss from a cyberattack or hack. Earlier this year, we witnessed one of the largest ransomware attacks on the U.S. energy industry, when the Colonial Pipeline was taken down for several days. Following those attacks, U.S. energy companies are “scrambling to buy more cyber insurance”, per Reuters.

Nick Economidis, Vice President of Cyber Liability at Crum & Forster, told Reuters that “only about half of the nation’s pipeline companies currently buy cyber insurance." That answer feels quite surprising on the surface but too often, companies are stuck with the “it can’t happen to us” mindset. If your company cannot see the forest through the trees, you might end up biting off more than you can chew. According to Purplesec, “due to the Covid-19 outbreak, an uptick in sophisticated email schemes by cybercriminals has emerged.” According to ABC News, “malicious emails are up 600% due to Covid-19.”

How do you know if cyber insurance is right for you? The answer is simple. Does your business send or store sensitive data? Do you work with private data that includes information about people?

Tech Jury reports that “over 2,100 data breaches in the healthcare industry have been reported since 2009.” BlueVoyant reports “the average cost of a ransomware attack in the higher education industry is $447,000.” According to the American Banker, “banks experienced a 520% increase in phishing and ransomware attempts between March and June in 2020.”

No industry is safe from ransomware. No company is safe from ransomware.

If you are not protected, it might be time for you to look into cyber insurance.