Business on alert for cyber threats; cyber insurance premiums increasing

The FBI is warning businesses to be on alert for cyberthreats.

And now cyber insurance is on more businesses’ radars.

One wrong click on an email can cost a business thousands.

Greg Scasny is the chief technical officer of BlueShift Cyber Security.

They monitor networks and organizations for cyber threats in real-time.

“We’re looking for those things that would lead to a data breach or ransomware event or data theft event or a data destruction event and trying to preempt those very early on so it doesn’t become an issue,” Scasny said.

Ever since Russia attacked Ukraine, Scasny has seen an increase in hackers all over the globe scanning the internet looking for a business with its guard down.

“We’re starting to see these more advanced level attacks on common businesses. It didn’t use to be that way,” he said.

In the FBI’s newest internet crime report, they received nearly $20,000 in business email compromise/email account compromise complaints, totaling nearly $2.4 trillion in losses.

And nearly 1,300 corporate data breach complaints cost more than $150 million last year.

Mark Friedlander with the Insurance Information Institute has seen an increase in demand for cyber insurance.

But getting a policy isn’t as easy as it used to be.

Insurance companies want to make sure businesses are doing their part internally to protect themselves.

“They have significantly increased the level of scrutiny for assessing risk for cyber events, you know, assessing risk for cyber events and writing this type of coverage, writing this type of risk for various types of businesses,” Friedlander said.

He said with the increase in threats comes the increase in claims to insurance companies.

So have the cost of those claims and the premiums are next.

“In fact, we’re expecting double-digit increases across the board for cybersecurity coverage,” Friedlander said.

Scasny hopes all business owners take these threats and warnings seriously.

“People should heed those warnings all the time but if you have been lax on your cyber defenses, now is the time. There is no better time than right now,” Scasny said.

Whether you’re a business or individual, the Insurance Information Institute recommends you keep software up to date including antivirus and Fireware and back up files on an external hard drive or in a separate cloud account.