2020 - Business Cyber Readiness

Cyber threats are ubiquitous and a common problem for every business with many companies struggling to improve their cyber awareness and their response. Cyber losses among businesses have risen nearly six-fold during the past year, from a median cost of $10,000 per firm to $57,000, according to latest Cyber Readiness 2020 report by Hiscox Insurance  

The benefit of increased cyber security expertise is not felt universally and the report’s UK data has been analysed to reveal stark differences between sectors.

The highest recorded total loss for any one company over the duration of the year was $87.9 million -a UK financial services firm - while the highest loss from any one event was $15.8 million  was suffered bu a UK professional services firm. The most heavily targeted sectors were financial services, manufacturing and technology, media and telecoms (TMT).

The energy industry faces the highest level  threat from cyber attacks, according to the report. This sector saw a loss of more than £100,000 in just 12 months, having been impacted by incidents such as phishing and virus infestation attempts. Energy businesses demonstrated an impressive effort to become cyber ready and now 84 per cent of companies have a dedicated cyber security role. However, it seems this is not enough to mitigate the high level of threat this industry faces and of the 15 different sectors analysed, energy was one of those most likely to face a cyber-attack.

Overall the 2020 report shows cyber crime is on the rise along with threats to business. Cyber losses have risen nearly six-fold worldwide in the past year. 

This report has surveyed firms in the UK, the US, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Belgium and Ireland.
The proportion of firms reporting a cyber event is down this year from 61% to 39%, but the financial impact of each breach is many times greater than before.

The UK’s government and non-profit sector saw a lot of losses due to cyber-attacks in the course of the past year. This is despite 70 per cent of organisations having at least one employee whose work focuses on cyber security. These  trends are  significant -  the energy and government sectors play a central economic and social role in society.  “While firms appear to be upping their game when it comes to cyber security at a global level, this is by no means uniform across sectors or countries,” Stephen Ridley, cyber underwriting manager at Hiscox UK. The report shows a broad-based rise in cyber security spending over the past year, with an average spend among the survey respondents of $2.1 million, up from $1.5 million the previous year, which is a rise of 39%.

This shows an increase in overall IT budgets and a 30% jump in the proportion that is focused on cyber. This has now moved from 9.9% to 12.9%, says the report.

As cyber criminals and their focused attack crimes change as the technology changes, businesses need to be aware of the key threats and how they can protect themselves. Technological advances and the wide use of digital media are making attackers smarter by the day and cyber criminals take advantage of individuals and firms who pay less heed to cyber security. 

Elite Business:     Insurance Journal:       PR Newswire:    Lexology:       IEEE Computer Soc: 

For a cost effective Cyber Audit Report on your organisation’s cyber security and training please contact Cyber Security Intelligence and we will recommend the right economic cyber training and cyber security audit policy for your organisation. 

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