Intelligent CIO North America Issue 21 | Page 45

CIO OPINION have dedicated playbooks in place to manage and mitigate them .
Proactive cybersecurity through Cyber Insurance
With the costs to manage and mitigate cyber-risks rising – from the first half of 2020 to 2021 , the average ransom demand increased by 170 % – businesses are looking to ‘ transfer ’ their cyber-risk through insurance .
Last year alone , there was an increase in claims frequency by 46 % for IT , and 53 % for professional services and 263 % for industrials , according to a report by Coalition . parts in businesses , including people , third parties , technology and cybersecurity products , that can be targeted for initiating ransomware attacks , cyber-risk quantification can be a game-changer for insurers and businesses alike .
Managing ransomware proactively
Firstly , an organization should define what financial risk they are facing as a result of ransomware attacks ; it varies depending on the geography , industry and size of the business .
Once they have calculated this value , they must build a strategy to accept , reduce or transfer the risk .
Cyber insurance plays a significant role in influencing proactive cybersecurity initiatives . The way insurers do not cover risky drivers under auto insurances , cyber insurers are liable to reject coverage if businesses do not have a certain standard of cybersecurity .
A deliberate shift from both parties to adopt a standardized means to measure , manage and mitigate cyber-risks in real-time through breach-likelihood prediction will have the benefit of knowing .
It will enable cyber insurance providers to have a dynamic view of who they ’ re covering and the risk they ’ re underwriting . Given the number of dynamic
If the damage is within acceptable limits , the business should focus its efforts on other facets of its cybersecurity strategy . However , to reduce the financial impact , they can either purchase cybersecurity products / services to improve their cyber-risk posture or patch identified vulnerabilities .
Cyber insurers are liable to reject coverage if businesses do not have a certain standard of cybersecurity .
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