The release of Verizon’s 2016 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) underlines the need for businesses to have robust cyber coverage and for brokers to have conversations with their corporate clients about cyber security, says a top cyber and financial institutions specialist.
The highly anticipated annual report includes industry-specific information discussing the top threats for financial services, healthcare, hospitality, public sector, retail and technology, and how these sectors can mitigate risks.
This year’s report points to repeating themes from prior-year findings such as the fact that 89% of all attacks involve financial or espionage motivations and exploit known vulnerabilities that have never been patched and that the top ten known vulnerabilities accounted for 85% of successful exploits.
It also found that 63% of confirmed data breaches involved using weak, default or stolen passwords, 95% of breaches and 86% of security incidents fell into nine patterns and basic defences continued to be sorely lacking in many organisations.
AIG’s National Cyber and Financial Institutions Specialist, Liliana Uhrik said: “With the risk of cyber-crime heightening every year, it is crucial that brokers and insurers are regularly talking to clients about uninsured exposures and the most suitable insurance solutions for their business.”
A cyber policy can provide everything from cover for fines, investigations costs, IT forensic services costs to public relations, breach notification and business interruption costs following a cyber-attack, she said.
But it’s equally as important to assist clients in developing risk mitigation strategies for avoiding cyber risks, she said.
“Simple actions businesses can take include generating cyber-crime awareness among employees, ensuring firewall and IT security software is up to date, encrypting mobile devices and creating a business continuity plan.”
Any good insurer will strongly support the broker in helping the client understand the risk of cyber-crime and the potential solutions,” she said.
“At AIG we do this by providing access to expert claims personnel who can talk through risk mitigation strategies, as well as access to useful sales tools that contain insightful thought leadership articles and whitepapers, claims stories and information about our insurance solution.”
