"No industry is immune" to cyberattacks

According to a Canadian cyber MGA, “no industry is immune” to cyberattacks and the huge potential costs that come with suffering a breach.

Greg Markell, president and CEO of Ridge Canada Cyber Solutions, yesterday hosted a “Cyber Insurance 101” webinar through Insurance Business’ e-Learning series.

Explaining the state of the market, and what brokers can look for, Markell said cyberattacks usually come in two forms: ransomware (which can include “the red screen of death,” when hackers will take over your system and hold it ransom until you pay for them to unlock your computer), and phishing (where hackers pretend to be someone else, to trick you into clicking on a malware link or transfer them money).

Though phishing remains “fairly extensive,” it can be mitigated by successful employee training to stop people clicking on suspicious links; however, ransomware losses have “become pandemic,” Markell said.

Ransomware losses are the most prevalent – “the number of scenarios and the severity of scenarios seems to be increasing,” he said.

In terms of what’s out there for brokers: policies have evolved “rapidly” in the past three to five years, Markell said.

That is good news for small to midsized business. According to Public Safety Canada, Markell said, 90% of small business owners think a cyberattack would have a serious impact on operations. And after they’ve been hit, many won’t survive the 18 months.

For brokers selling cyber to their customers, they need to understand their companies and their carrier policies, he said.

Policies now, to varying degrees, will feature some or all of the first-party coverages for breach notification costs, digital forensic investigation, business interruption losses, data restoration costs, extortion costs, and regulatory procedure fees. For third-party coverages, policies will usually cover network security liability, privacy liability, and internet media liability.


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