We recently sat in on a presentation by a leading independent Canadian accounting firm on ways to reduce risk with cyber insurance.
We’ve been discussing cyber insurance for a long time with clients and business owners; but what stood out to us were the updated 2021 costs associated with ransomware attacks, which were MUCH worse than what our own research revealed. According to this accounting firm:
Average ransom amount: $170,000. Sample data ranges from a few thousand to millions of dollars.
Average loss due to a cyber incident: $2,000,000. Company sizes range from less than 10 employees to hundreds.
Business interruptions costs average 5 times the ransom amount.
Average ransom demand is 5-10% of revenue. Previous research showed it was less than 1%!
As surprising as these numbers are, some companies say it is even worse: https://www.thestar.com/business/2021/07/28/cost-of-data-breaches-in-canada-hit-new-record-in-2021-ibm.html
On top of these costs, companies are discovering that insurance companies are refusing to pay if you don’t follow their cyber incident response procedures EXACTLY. This means that even when (or if) a company can recover quickly to get operational, doing so could jeopardize an insurance claim.
Wondering if you’re doing everything possible to protect your business? Take advantage of our free and confidential cyber risk assessment here: https://birmingham.ca/consult
