Security News > 2021 > October > Cyber risk trends driving the surge in ransomware incidents

"The number of ransomware attacks may even increase before the situation gets better," says Scott Sayce, Global Head of Cyber at AGCS. "Not all attacks are targeted. Criminals also adopt a scattergun approach to exploit those businesses that aren't addressing or understanding the vulnerabilities they may have. As insurers we must continue to work with our clients to help businesses understand the need to strengthen their controls. At the same time, in today's rapidly evolving cyber insurance market, providing emergency response services, as well as financial compensation, is now the standard."

These cyber risk trends are mirrored in AGCS' own claims experience, being involved in more than a thousand cyber claims overall in 2020, up from about 80 in 2016.

Losses resulting from external cyber incidents such as ransomware or Distributed Denial of Service attacks account for most of the value of all cyber claims analyzed by AGCS over the past six years.

The surge in ransomware attacks in recent years has triggered a major shift in the cyber insurance market.

"Three out of four companies do not meet AGCS' requirements for cyber security," explains Marek Stanislawski, Global Cyber Underwriting Lead at AGCS. "Companies need to invest in cyber security. Losses can be avoided if organizations follow best practices. A house with an open door is much more likely to be burgled than a locked house."

"In around 80% of ransomware incidents losses could have been avoided if the organizations had followed best practices. Regular patching, multi-factor authentication, as well as information security and awareness training and incident response planning are essential to avoiding ransomware attacks and also constitute good cyber hygiene," says Rishi Baviskar, Global Cyber Experts Leader at AGCS Risk Consulting.

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