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Mar 2024

Cyber not a game of chance

Source: Middle East Insurance Review | Jun 2021

Businesses are devoting more resources to the cyber challenge than ever before, according to the latest Hiscox Cyber Readiness report 2021.
 
The fifth annual report highlights how organisations have fared through the COVID-19 pandemic and maps out a useful blueprint for cyber readiness best practice. More firms were targeted by criminals in 2020 than in 2019 and those who needed to defend their business often did so several times. In fact, the survey found that 28% of the businesses that suffered attacks were targeted on more than five occasions in 2020.
 
This trend, which saw some businesses face multiple ransomware attacks, comes alongside new challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
The report provides a unique gauge on the state of commercial cyber security across eight markets – the UK, the US, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Belgium and Ireland.
 
The 2020 report had said that the cyber landscape was maturing as losses soared but so too did cyber expertise. The 2021 report reveals that this trend is becoming stronger as cybercrime has risen for the first time since 2018 and it also reveals ‘a range of impacts’.
 
Despite economic pressures, cyber spending was found to have soared. The average business surveyed now devotes more than a fifth (21%) of its IT budget to cyber security, a jump of 63%.
 
The 2021 report shows the number of businesses to achieve cyber expert status has risen again to 20%. After limited growth in 2018 and 2019, it seems leaders are continuing to adopt best practice benefits.
 
Of those targeted, about one in six businesses said a cyber event threatened the viability of their business.
 
Ransomware was found to have played a significant role. The survey found that a payment had been demanded from around one in six of those hit by cyber criminals and more than half paid. M 
 
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