Security News

When American International Group launched the first cyber insurance policy in 1997, it stepped into completely unknown territory to gain market share. While in the UK adoption rates of cyber insurance vary significantly depending on the size of an organization, the US has seen a notable spike in demand across many markets for the past two years, with premiums increasing by 50% in 2022, in large part due to increasing ransomware attacks.

Cyber insurance is a type of insurance policy that provides financial protection and support to individuals and organizations in the event of cyber incidents, including data breaches, hacking, ransomware attacks, and other cyber threats. It typically covers expenses such as data recovery, legal fees, notification costs, public relations efforts, and regulatory fines, helping policyholders manage the financial impact and recovery process following a cyberattack or data breach.

Overall cyber insurance claims frequency increased by 12% in the first half of 2023, according to Coalition. Companies with over $100 million in revenue saw the largest increase in the number of claims as well as more substantial losses from attacks - with a 72% increase in claims severity from 2H 2022.

A significant gap is emerging between insurance providers, as organizations skip the fine print and seek affordable and comprehensive coverage, potentially putting them in a tough place when they need to use this safety net, according to a Delinea report. This year, companies that used their cyber insurance more than once increased to 47%, while 67% of respondents noted that their insurance rates increased 50-100% upon application or renewal.

Cybersecurity insurance is a rapidly growing market, swelling from approximately $13B in 2022 to an estimated $84B in 2030, but insurers are struggling with quantifying the potential risks of offering this type of insurance. Cyber attackers escalate and adapt quickly, which undermines the historical-based models that insurance companies rely on.

Specops research shows that in an analysis of 800 million breached passwords, 83% of compromised passwords satisfy the password length and complexity requirements of regulatory password standards. Data from a LastPass survey shows 83% of businesses reported having to prove to their insurance provider that they have multi-factor authentication or password management in order to qualify for coverage or receive a lower premium rate.

One solution to help organizations protect themselves is cyber insurance, despite the rising costs of cyber insurance, where the average price in the U.S. rose 79% in the second quarter of 2022. While cyber insurance is not a one-size-fits-all solution and may not cover every possible scenario, it can help organizations mitigate the financial and reputational risks associated with cyber-attacks and data breaches.

Insurers, just like health systems themselves, need the full context of clinical operations to see the true impact. Better informed health systems with strong cybersecurity governance will pose a lower risk to insurers, creating greater opportunity for a more sustainable insurance market.

In this Help Net Security video, Fawaz Rasheed, Field CISO at VMware, discusses how cyber insurance remains the high tide that rises ships. For organizations choosing to purchase cyber insurance, the requirements set forth towards them are beneficial in advancing their security program.

Only 3.54% of of insurance companies have correctly implemented basic phishing and spoofing protection, according to EasyDMARC. DMARC standard adoption. The survey reviewed the deployment of the Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance standard among the domains of insurance companies.