The cyber threat businesses face is an evolving menace in today’s digital ecosystem. And this is why you have to continually evaluate the readiness of your organization in dealing with this threat. Because the attacks are relentless and ever-changing.
Big Rise in Cyber Attacks
According to the third Hiscox Cyber Readiness Report, the number of businesses reporting cyber incidents has gone up from 45% last year to 61% in 2019. Not to mention the final cost of these attacks.
As it relates to small businesses, the report says they are just as vulnerable as large enterprises. Adding, more small organizations were targeted this year and smaller companies are now also caught up in the cyber battle.
Even though it sounds bleak, Gareth Wharton, Cyber CEO, Hiscox, says there is much you can do to protect yourself.
In the report, Wharton says, “The cyber risk may mutate rapidly, but progress in mitigating and managing it is also evolving. I hope this report will go some way to helping promote a better understanding of the issues and encourage the adoption of rigorous and effective measures to minimize the cyber threat.”
Key Findings
At the same time, the frequency of attacks is increasing, more firms are failing the cyber readiness test. Compared to what counts as best practices, the report says most businesses still have some way to go when it comes to preparedness.
Nearly three in four or 74% are failing to reach the threshold established for expertise by Hiscox in any area. Moreover, the number of organizations in the expert category is slightly down from 11% to 10% this year. Intermediates make up 16% of the respondents, which is the same as the previous year.
With fewer experts, it is not that surprising the cost of cyber losses are increasing. In the last 12 months, the mean cost to businesses has gone up from $299,000 to $369,000, a 61% jump. But the cost to small businesses is down by more than half, from $29,000 to $14,000.
However, it doesn’t tell the whole story because there is now a higher number of single incidents which are costing more. A year ago the largest single incident came in at $34,000, but this year it has jumped to a whopping $200,000. The report says companies of all sizes can expect to see incidents which will be three to 18 times larger than what they were a year ago.
The Talk About Cyber Insurance
Why are more businesses talking about cyber insurance? Because according to the survey, the number of people who say they don’t know what cyber insurance now stands at 3%. This means almost all or 97% are aware of the service.
Consequently, it has led more businesses to purchase cyber insurance to protect their organization because damages are getting too expensive to pay out of pocket. In the survey, 41% of businesses now have cyber insurance, which is up from 33% of a year ago. Furthermore, another 30% plan to adopt cyber insurance in the next 12 months, which is also higher than 25% of the previous year.
Now is the time to talk about your digital liabilities and how you can protect them.
The Survey
The majority of the businesses in this survey (39%) have 1 to 49 employees, with another 16% coming from firms with 50 to 99 workers. A total of 5,392 professionals who are part of their organization’s cybersecurity strategy took part in the survey.
The organizations in the survey are from the U.S., U.K., Germany, Belgium, France, Spain and The Netherlands. They took the online survey between the 22nd of October and the 7th of December 2018.
You can download the full report here.
Image: Depositphotos.com
This article, "61% of Businesses Have Experienced a Cyber Attack Over the Past Year" was first published on Small Business Trends
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Michael Guta, Khareem Sudlow
