The technology industry is often called upon to come up with solutions to prevent, detect and mitigate the effects of a cyberattack. But companies from the industry segment are by no means immune to cyberattacks.
Consider, for example, the recent news that Kaspersky Lab fell victim to a cyberattack. They are certainly not alone. Cyberattacks again tech firms have been on a steady rise, according to Advisen’s Loss Insight database.
The technology industry is made up of companies manufacturing or servicing: communications, components, computer office equipment, cable services, and computer programming, data processing and other computer-related services—to name a few.
Can we assume that since many of these types of companies are responsible for interconnecting us—an inevitability predicted within the next decade to increase by leaps and bounds, in ways we’ve only dreamed of—we can then expect more cyberattacks on the tech sector to cause disruption, steal intellectual property and take our personal data?
Over time, like in many industries, personal data is increasingly exposed by a cyber event in the tech industry. Today, nearly 50 percent of cases involve the loss of personal data. But since 2013, losses were also seen more in business income and digital assets.
Over time, data breaches have become less and less of the overall cases housed in the Loss Insight database while the proportion of network violations (below, in the middle blue color) have increased. Improper collection of data has decreased as a case type over time. Identity theft was also once comprised a larger portion of cases.
Emails are the No. 1 source of loss. Forty-eight percent of cyber cases involve a emails. About 25 percent involve servers.
In our version of a loss probability curve, you can see how losses from a cyber event in the tech industry can add up rather quickly. Somewhere around 35 percent of cases result in losses of $1 million. Fifteen percent of cases in Loss Insight have losses approaching $10 million. But consider the vertical axis of loss amounts are in multiples of 10.
According to the database, the average loss for a small business is $1.8 million; medium-sized is$4.3 million; and large companies stand to lose an average of $10.8 million.
Chad Hemenway is Managing Editor of Advisen News. He has more than 15 years of journalist experience at a variety of online, daily, and weekly publications. He has covered P&C insurance news since 2007, and he has experience writing about all P&C lines as well as regulation and litigation. Chad won a Jesse H. Neal Award for Best Single Article in 2014 for his coverage of the insurance implications of traumatic brain injuries and Best News Coverage in 2013 for coverage of Superstorm Sandy. Contact Chad at 212.897.4824 or [email protected].
