Cyber attacks can cause all manner of havoc for a business. A recent survey points to it being very common for businesses to find themselves the victims of such attacks these days. It suggests that over half of U.S. companies have been subjected to such an attack in the past year.
The survey was of over 400 executives from businesses from across the United States. The responses of these executives indicated that around 53 percent of U.S. companies were the victim of a cyber attack within the past year. According to the responses, some of the most common kinds of attacks such companies were subjected to were malware and viruses.
In addition to having major impacts on the targeted companies, high prevalence levels of cyber attacks against businesses can also have implications for insurers.
Among the types of policies businesses sometimes take out with insurers are cyber insurance policies. The above-mentioned survey indicated that, during the past year, many businesses added or increased cyber insurance coverage.
High levels of business-targeting cyber attacks could mean high levels of claims for insurers that provide cyber insurance coverage. What claims and how much in claims an insurer receives can have major financial ramifications for it and impacts on what kinds of legal issues arise for it.
One wonders if cyber attack levels will remain high among U.S. companies in the future. If they do, one wonders what impacts this will have on things such as how common it is for businesses to have cyber insurance, how much in claims cyber insurance providers receive and the typical size of such claims.