The illusive cyber statistics
At the dawn of the new Millennium, it became increasingly evident that the world would eventually see more incidents of cyber crime. The reality is that the criminals perpetrating these crimes would eventually be on many of the world’s most wanted lists.
Since 2015, this prediction became a stark reality as cyber crime became one of the most popular crimes in the world. The challenge when dealing with cyber crime is that information is scarce.
A recent blogpost on bestvpns.co.uk contained a number of valuable infographics which painted a valuable picture when it comes to the extent of the crime.
This is important information for brokers to know when sitting down with clients to review their cyber policies. The importance of cyber insurance cannot be overlooked.
Top of the pile
According to the blog post, the most prevalent cyber crimes in 2017 were the predictable ones.
The post points out that over 200 000 computers in 150 countries were affected by the WannaCry malware. The post adds that over 12 500 computers in 64 countries faced the threat of Petya ransomware.
There were also data breaches which were not directly related to a specific cyber crime. The blog post pointed out that WikiLeaks published a data trove containing 8 761 documents that were stolen from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
The post added that Data Breach Hunter, Chris Vickery, discovered a publicly accessible database which contained personal information of over 198 million voters in 2017.
A rare find
Because of the trust that is given to companies when it comes to online transactions, companies are reluctant to report instances of cyber crime and are even more reluctant to put a value to these numbers.
This makes the information that was shared on the bestvpns.co.uk blog so important.
According to the blog, malware cost the global business industry an estimated $2,36 million in 2017. It added that web-based attacks cost the global business industry an estimated $2,01 million in 2017 while denial of service (DNS) attacks cost the global business industry an estimated $1,5 million and malicious intruder attacks cost $1,4 million in 2017.
One of the most personal cyber crimes that can be committed without the person at the receiving end of the crime feeling that something is amiss is phishing and social engineering. Social engineering is when criminals hack into a social media platform, impersonates another person or company, and engages with a potential victim. According to the blog, this type of crime cost the global business industry an estimated $1,29 million.
Large dangers
When engaging with clients, brokers may be presented with the argument that the biggest targets for cyber criminals are large, multinational corporations. And when one looks at the statistics that appear on the blog, these arguments could be seen as very valid.
The blog points out that 143 million Equifax accounts were hacked on 29 July 2017. There have also been big hacks in the past. In 2003, 13 billion Yahoo accounts were hacked and in 2014, 145 million eBay accounts were hacked.
The importance of advice
While the argument about hackers targeting big companies is valid, brokers need to point out that this is not the extent of the argument.
In fact, hackers are increasingly targeting small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) because they feel that these businesses are ill equipped to deal with cyber crime. And in many cases, they are.
The blog points out that only 22% of global SMEs had cyber security training of any sort in 2016. Further, the blog points out that only 60% of global SMEs go out of business within six months of a cyber attack.
However, the most frightening statistic that was published by the blog points out that 51% of global SMEs are not allocating any budget at all to the risk mitigation of cyber attacks.
Big hitters
It is hard to look at these figures and say that they are relevant the quantum faced in the South African business sector. However, it is important to bear these figures in mind as they show that when a cyber crime is committed, large numbers are generally the order of the day.
The blog points out that the average annual security breach costs large UK firms an average of £36 500. In addition, in 2016, $16 billion was stolen from 15.4 million consumers in the US.
The final major figure that needs to be taken into consideration is that the global cyber security market was worth $120 billion in 2017.
Editor’s Thoughts:
While these statistics are very global in nature. Being forewarned is never a bad thing, and there is no replacement for expert advice when it comes to this. The importance of cyber liability in South Africa is growing every day. Brokers have a major role to play in the financial services industry’s sustainability in a cyber driven future. Please comment below, interact with us on Twitter at @fanews_online or email me your thoughts [email protected].
