Cyberattacks are getting bigger, and spending money on security is probably becoming your top priority. Cyber insurance is growing and becoming not just an option, but a requirement for some companies. Here are five things to know about cyber insurance.
* Cyberattacks are now the top business concern. A 2019 Global Cyber Risk Perception survey (PDF) conducted by insurance consultancy Marsh and tech giant Microsoft found that cyberattacks beat out economic uncertainty, brand damage, and government regulation, so that's serious. * More companies have cyber insurance than ever before. 47 percent of organizations surveyed say they have cyber insurance now–that's up from 34 percent in 2017. By 2020, the gross written premiums for cyber insurance is expected to be just less than $8 billion. * Money makes a difference in your insurance decision. 57 percent of companies with revenues of more than $1 billion had a cyber insurance policy, compared with 36 percent of companies with revenues less than $100 million. And 63 percent of companies that express cyber risk economically have cyber insurance, compared to 46 percent of those who assess cyber risk qualitatively or not at all. * The top risk covered by cyber insurance seems to be business email compromises. AIG said email compromises accounted for 23 percent of all cyber-insurance claims in the EMEA region in 2017, followed by ransomware. * Not all cyber insurance claims are paid. Drug maker Merck and food giant Mondelez are both suing insurance providers over nonpayment for damages from the NotPetya virus in 2017. NotPetya was considered by many insurance companies as an act of war.
