1. Effective cybersecurity practices to decrease cyber risk
Today, there are increasing cyber risks for organizations of all sizes across all industries around the globe. While these risks can be quantified in terms of data loss, cyber risk has more far-reaching impacts such as threats to your operational resilience and potential financial losses and negative brand and customer impact.
Unfortunately, many organizations just don't have enough qualified staff, time, resources or experience to identify these risks for their organization or to make plans to prioritize and address them.
And, threat actors are working overtime hoping you haven’t mitigated all the risks within your organization. They're waiting for the right opportunity to exploit a cyber threat and take advantage of your weaknesses with potentially catastrophic outcomes.
As teams work around the clock to get a handle on cyber risk, the reality is the list grows in length, types and complexity. It’s further complicated because many organizations are also balancing cyber risk analysis and cyber risk management while actively responding to multiple risks and disruptions at the same time.
According to Allianz Risk Barometer 2023, cyber risk is the leading cause of concern for business interruption, leading the list for the second consecutive year. That includes incidents such as IT outages, data breaches and ransomware attacks. And, for 19 counties, cyber risk is also considered the top peril.
As cyber risk continues to increase and change, the risks and related measures to proactively identify and mitigate them are no longer just quiet conversations among IT professionals. They’re getting a lot more attention at the board and C-suite level. In many cases, cyber risk management is also becoming an executive and key stakeholder responsibility, the report found. Some new legislation and other regulations are even making it a requirement for compliance. For example, the SEC’s new cyber incident disclosure guidelines specifically shift some of cyber risk management responsibility to the board level.
Cyber insurance companies are also giving cyber risk management best practices closer scrutiny. Traditionally, carriers only required companies to attest they had cybersecurity controls and frameworks in place to get coverage. Today, most carriers go well beyond that, including now requiring proof those controls are in place and function as intended. In some cases, that even includes undergoing third-party testing and exercises to maintain coverage.