Companies Needing 650 Million In Cyber Insurance
A number of companies across the globe have raised their concerns in relation to their cyber insurance policies. Some firms are going to need as much as £650 million in cover as the costs of hacker attacks rise. Insurance experts have issued the warning but a lot of firms are struggling to acquire even a tenth of this amount.
The maximum amount of cyber attack that a company can currently acquire is £325 million but a majority of businesses have trouble obtaining more than £125 million. In other words, these companies could be facing hundreds of millions of pounds worth of extra costs if their systems are compromised.
Russian security group Kaspersky Labs have highlighted their concerns in relation to the recent hacking threat, revealing that they've found 'very sophisticated' spying software in the hard drives of different PCs across 30 different countries including China, Iran, Pakistan and Russia. US retailer Target said: "The cost of cyber attacks are rocketing. In November, the price tag for the data breach that affected 110 million of our customers has reached £160 million."
They added: "The costs are becoming so great that we really need $1bn policies in light of the threats we are facing. The question is how do we get there and price risk, especially when the risks are changing every day." There has been a recent breach at Anthem (the second largest US health insurer) where 80 million social security numbers were stolen but they only hold £90 million in insurance cover.
James Savery, 19 February 2015