Demand for cyber insurance is expected to increase –
as predicted by Lloyd’s of London – as the rise in ransomware attacks in 2016 is also expected to continue this year, specialist insurer
Beazley has warned.
Beazley said its breach response services unit managed 1,943 data breaches on behalf of clients in 2016, up from 1,247 breaches in 2015. The division discovered that organisations appeared to be particularly vulnerable to attacks during IT system freezes, at the end of financial quarters and during busy shopping periods.
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According to Beazley, ransomware attacks were over four times higher in 2016 than in 2015. The ease and effectiveness of these attacks foreshadow an even larger increase in 2017, the company said, projecting the attacks to double again this year.
“The threat from ransomware is not only growing, but evolving to allow hackers to target vulnerable organisations and their most valuable data files and adjust ransom demands accordingly,” said Katherine Keefe, global head of the Beazley Breach Response Services unit.
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“The sustained increase in these threats in 2016 indicates that even more organisations will be attacked in 2017 and need to have incident response plans in place before they get a ransomware demand,” Keefe added.
Beazley’s findings also revealed that financial institutions have suffered more attacks, with hacks and malware accounting for 40% of data breaches in 2016, up from 27% in 2015. Attacks on higher education institutions are also increasing, with hacks and malware accounting for 45% of data breaches in 2016, up from 35% in 2015. In the healthcare industry, misdirected emails or the improper release of discharge papers led to 40% of breaches, up from 30%.
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