How To Lower Cyber Insurance Costs
The cyber insurance sector, an emergent domain within the broader digital and financial services landscape, has grown exponentially as a response to an increasingly complex cybersecurity landscape. This growth correlates with an uptick in cyber threats and vulnerabilities, emphasizing the importance of robust cyber defenses within companies.
Sophos recently unveiled a report titled "The Critical Role of Frontline Cyber Defenses in Insurance Adoption." This report sheds light on how the efficiency of cyber defenses directly impacts various aspects of cyber insurance.
95% of companies that have purchased a cyber insurance policy in the previous year reported experiencing a direct impact, showcasing a clear correlation between cybersecurity measures and insurance outcomes.
The research indicated that 60% of these companies found that the quality of their cyber defenses influenced their ability to secure coverage, while 62% reported that it affected their premium costs. Furthermore, about 28% of respondents noted that it altered their policy terms. These findings underscore the importance of proactive cyber defense mechanisms and their role in determining the conditions of cyber insurance.
Cyber insurance has seemingly become a standard business practice, with 91% of surveyed companies holding a policy. An additional 8% of companies without coverage indicated plans to adopt cyber insurance within the following year. The adoption of insurance, in turn, dramatically assists companies in recovering from cyber-attacks.
Among those companies with cyber insurance, 98% with a standalone policy and 97% with a broader policy incorporating cyber coverage could recover encrypted data post-ransomware attack. This contrasts starkly with the 84% recovery rate among uninsured entities, signifying the importance of insurance in data recovery efforts.
The report further indicated that companies with dedicated cyber insurance are significantly more likely to pay ransoms to retrieve encrypted data. Out of the entities that experienced data encryption due to ransomware in the past year, 59% of standalone policyholders paid the ransom, compared to 37% with broader policies and a mere 15% among the uninsured.
Raja Patel, senior vice president for products at Sophos, emphasized the importance of top-notch cybersecurity defenses and expert skill sets in thwarting cyber threats. With industry-leading threat detection and response capabilities, Sophos aims to provide superior security outcomes to customers tailored to their specific needs.
The data from Sophos’ report is sourced from an independent global study involving 3,000 cybersecurity/IT professionals across 14 countries.
Image credit: iStockphoto/Stadtratte
