With the goal of raising awareness about the importance of insurance against cyber threats, Medmark Insurance Brokerage hosted the Cyber Insurance Seminar on May 16th, 2023, at the Four Seasons – Nile Plaza. Almost 100 participants, including decision-makers such as CFOs, CEOs, owners, IT professionals, insurance directors, and finance managers, engaged with the field's leading experts and gained in-depth insight on safeguarding businesses from the growing risks of cyber events presented by the loss, compromise or theft of electronic data. Cybercrime could cost the world up to $10.5 trillion by 2025 in the form of damages, downtime, recovery and remediation, according to the World Economic Forum. Cyber security, IT governance and data security are now considered top business risks, with the number of ransomware attacks having significantly increased in the past year, according to The Institute of Internal Auditors. While the number of cyber-attacks is on the rise, their complexity also increases, threatening the reputation, financial stability and sometimes even the existence of businesses worldwide. To tackle the risk head-on and in collaboration with Medmark's partner Howden Insurance Brokers Limited, the largest insurance brokerage group outside US, the seminar featured insights by renowned cyber insurance expert Thomas Cook, Regional Associate Director of Cyber – TMEA at Howden Insurance Brokers in Dubai. Cook discussed the current state of cyber insurance and recent market trends, highlighting that electronic system downtime, among other consequences of data breaches and attacks, is not covered by traditional types of insurance. He also underscored the importance of insurance against costs of actions needed after a data breach, forensic investigations, restoration, and even legal claims. "This seminar clearly exhibits how our partnership with Medmark provides our collective clients with access to a top-tier broker in Egypt coupled with our extensive network and specific industry experience. Between 2019 and the end of 2021, global ransomware attacks increased by 230 percent, causing the average cost of downtime to leap by 170 percent," Cook stated. "We want our clients to be aware of the options they have when it comes to cyber insurance, and prompt potential clients to secure themselves against the potential data breaches and consequent losses they could face." In Egypt, the situation is not very different. Enterprise cloud security provider Trend Micro Solutions detected and blocked over 29 million email threats, more than 1.4 million malware attacks, and over 3.6 million URL-victim attacks in 2021 alone. Moreover, during the first quarter of 2023, phishing attacks rose by 49% in Egypt, compared to the same period last year, according to cyber security solutions provider Kaspersky. The number of cyber-attacks on Egypt's banking sector alone has grown by 186% year-on-year during the first quarter of 2023, Kaspersky adds in its most recent report. "Organizations today are more tech-dependent than ever, which is why we are very pleased at Medmark to lead the Egyptian market towards increased adoption of cyber insurance as part of the Howden One network," Medmark CEO Sherif ElGhatrifi said. "Egypt is not out of reach of cyber-attacks and ransomware, and with Howden's expertise, we are able to provide clients with a unique experience helping them mitigate their cyber risks amidst increased incidences in Egypt and globally." "We will strive to assist our customers in mitigating such risks and are confident in the growth of the Egyptian market when it comes to Cyber Insurance in line with global growth trends as the market continues to grow more than $16bn for 2023. As Egypt's largest insurance broker, we take it upon ourselves to not only maintain our market leadership but to also stay ahead of the curve in terms of anticipating the future needs of our customers and partners and fulfilling them before they materialize," he added. Medmark Insurance Brokerage has been named Egypt's largest broker according to the latest Financial Regulatory Authority report. With active clients in over 100 countries, Medmark processes over 90,000 insurance claims every year for its 80,000+ insured members, with an average retention rate of 92%. The company is also recognized as Bupa's No.1 Global Distributor worldwide.
