The Top Threats in Cybersecurity Today
Cybercrimes are constantly evolving. Here’s how to stay one step ahead of cybercriminals.
Cybercrimes are a dangerous business: this malicious type of online activity threatens the safety of individuals as well as corporations, both large and small. As cybercriminals become more and more sophisticated, it’s never been more important to brush up on your understanding of possible threats – and learn how to best protect your people and business.
We recently caught up with Crane’s Management Liability & Cyber Practice Leader, Beth Martin, on her expert thoughts on how to keep your personal and work information safe from emerging threats. Read part two of our Q&A with her here (and take a look at our first Q&A with her on Management Liability Insurance in this post).
Q: As an expert in the cybersecurity space, what would you say are the top threats to cybersecurity today?
The top threat continues to be ransomware and double extortion.
The second loss we see often is social engineering used to perform fraudulent wire transfers.
This market is ever-evolving and it takes work on all sides of the risk to come together to fight these criminals.
Q: You’ve worked in this industry for more than a decade. How have cybercrimes evolved from 10 years ago?
Quickly! We’ve seen evolutions in breach response, to ransomware, to business interruption, and more — and the policy has been forced to evolve with the flow of new and updated risk exposures.
Over the past 3-5 years, we’ve seen some standardization across cyber products, which helps when considering coverage options between markets.
More recently, systemic cyber-risks have forced cyber carriers to reconsider classes of business where one event could cause multiple losses in their book of business.
Supply chain risks are also forcing underwriters to consider each risks’ technology supply chain and partnerships more closely.
Looking ahead, we’ll see the use of more front-end, proactive services from Insurtechs, which provide cyber risk mitigation year round, not just at the annual renewal.
Q: How do you advise clients to safeguard their company or nonprofit from cyber threats?
We always advise working with a good cybersecurity partner, defining and protecting your company’s sensitive data, developing a cybersecurity incident response plan, and training employees on cyber security.
Of course, Cyber Insurance plays a very important role in safeguarding against cyber threats and losses. We work with best-in-class insurance carrier partners who provide cybersecurity products and services before, during, and after cyber incidents.
Over the past 2-3 years, cyber loss ratios have brought us increasing premiums and have reduced limit offerings, specific coverage exclusions, co-insurance and retention/deductible options as underwriters have scrambled to recover from large loss payouts.
On both the corporate/client and insurance carrier sides of the house, we have been adding capital to cybersecurity and hiring industry experts in order to gain understanding of this sector.
Beth suggests some immediate ways you can step up protection, for employees and business leaders, against ransomware, too, including:
Updating your operating system and software.
Implementing user training and phishing exercises to raise awareness of the risk of suspicious links and attachments.
Securing and monitoring your Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) (if you use one).
Making an offline backup of your data.
Using multifactor authentication (MFA).
Our team is here to help in assessing your risk profile and setting you up with the right coverage to protect yourself, your data and your assets. Contact us today to set up your consultation to discuss more.
