2017
Insurers Handling ‘Hundreds’ of Cyber Breach Claims Insurance claims for data breaches are being made at a rate of more than one a day, figures from CFC Underwriting suggest. The firm said that in 2016 it had handled more than 400 claims on cyber-breach policies it had issued. The main types of attack being claimed for were privacy breaches and the theft of cash, it said. The massive amount of stolen data shared online was driving many attacks, said the firm. No recovery Claims on CFC policies were up 78% on 2015, said Graeme Newman, chief innovation officer at the underwriter.
behind 16% of the claims filed with CFC, putting it third behind data breaches and theft, he added. Mr Newman also pointed out that the major breaches seen in 2016, which have seen huge amounts of login details stolen and shared, was starting to be used much more frequently. These "phantom breaches" and account takeovers were proving tempting for criminal hackers, said Mr Newman. "They are going after the low-hanging fruit," he said. Cyber Breach Claim Categories Privacy breach 31% Financial loss 22% Ransomware 16% Malware/viruses 7% Website attacks 5%
"About 90% of our claims by volume are from businesses with less than £50m in revenue," he said, adding that a "disproportionate" number of claims were being made by British firms.
Unauthorised access Business interruptions 4%
"This is largely down to the fact that on the whole, UK businesses have a lower level of security maturity than their US counterparts," he said.
Other 10%
Ransomware, in which data is encrypted unless victims pay cash to a hacker to unscramble it, was
Cyber-insurance was becoming necessary to help firms cope with the volume of attacks they faced every day, he said.
[Source: CFC Underwriting]