Top 5 cyber threats

Top 5 cyber threats

Cyber is becoming one of the biggest threats to global business. From email phishing scams tricking firms into making payments to bogus accounts, to hacking and malicious attacks, most businesses are vulnerable.

These are just 5 of the threats you should be aware of:

1. Malware, including spyware, ransomware, viruses, and worms, usually gets into your system by someone clicking on a link in an email. Once installed, malware can block access, steal security information or disable operation until you pay a fee.

2. Phishing is the practice of sending fraudulent communications that appear to come from a reputable source, usually through email. The goal is to steal sensitive data, get you to pay a false invoice,
or to trick you into installing

3. Man in the middle (MitM) attacks usually occur on unsecure public Wi-Fi, where attackers insert themselves between a visitor’s device and the network. Without knowing, the visitor passes all their private information through the attacker., the visitor

4.Denial of service attacks flood your systems, servers, or networks with traffic to grind them to a halt. This
is usually designed to embarrass you or devalue your trust with customers.

5. Zero-day exploit hits after a network vulnerability is announced but before a patch or solution is implemented and can disable, steal or compromise your data, systems and operation.

Learn more about how Cyber insurance can protect your business.

We provide cyber insurance to clients of all sizes. What we’ve noticed is that there is a lot of confusion over what the threats are and what cyber insurance will cover. CFC, a pioneer in the underwriting of emerging risk, has helped us to clear up a few myths about cyber:

Myth 1

“Cyber events caused by human oversight or error won’t be covered”

The reality: While it’s true that cyber insurance was primarily developed to deal with malicious cyber events, policies go far beyond this today, covering a wide range of losses caused by human error or oversight, such as lost laptops or social engineering scams. In fact, about 75% of the cyber claims that CFC pay are for events originally caused by some kind of human error.

Myth 2

“Only the legally required costs associated with a data breach will be covered”

The reality: Should a cyber event lead to a privacy breach, nearly every policy will pick up the costs associated with regulatory fines and penalties, and breach management like the production and posting of letters, remediation, and crisis communications.

Myth 3

“System interruption cover will only cover the period of actual system downtime”

The reality: Not true. CFC’s policy, for example, automatically provides a 12-month indemnity period to pick up losses incurred in the long aftermath of a cyber event. Many other providers offer 3-6 months as standard, with the option to extend.

Myth 4

“If an outsourced provider or contractor experiences an issue that leads to a cyber event, it won’t be covered”

The reality: The majority of cyber policies are designed to cover the entirety of business operations. Outsourced technology providers and contractors are all covered, as part of a CFC policy. In fact, CFC policies cover policyholders’ data too, wherever it is hosted and whomever it is breached by.

CFC is a full-service, specialist insurance provider with a global customer base and is one of a panel of providers
Myth 5

“In the event of a cyber incident, businesses cannot choose the IT, legal, or PR specialists they work with”

The reality: Many policies offer a global panel of incident response partners because firms under attack don’t necessarily know these experts or have time to assess who is best to help. CFC doesn’t typically limit policyholders to working with the CFC panel alone, if clients have preferred partners.

Myth 6

“Cyber insurance doesn’t pay out”

The reality: In 2018, we paid over 1,000 cyber claims and we expect that number to increase by 50% in 2019. The number of these claims continues to rise and insurers expect to pay them.

CFC is a full-service, specialist insurance provider with a global customer base and is one of a panel of providers
Bellwood Prestbury uses for cyber insurance. CFC’s full cyber myths piece, which ran in February 2019, is available for download at www.cfcunderwriting.com/resources