Tag: CyberRiskAssessment

Unsafe at Home: The Heightened Cyber Risk of At-Home Workers

Two years ago, employees across the country and around the world collaborated with their employers to establish ways they could perform their job duties while working from home.  Today, the urgent need for home-based workers has receded, but the popularity of this option remains high.

And while certain trends point to an actual increase in productivity, job satisfaction, and a better work-life balance from working at home, the choice does also come with a few risks, some quite disturbing and potentially very costly.

The Cost of a Data Breach Report, conducted by the Ponemon Institute and IBM Security, reports that 76% of respondents whose organizations have shifted to remote work expect that working from home could increase the time required to identify and contain a data breach.  What’s more, 70% of respondents expect remote working to increase the cost of a data breach.

Those results should cause business leaders to pause, at least for a moment, to think about what remote work represents regarding risks to your organization’s cybersecurity status.  With the geopolitical upheaval emanating from Eastern Europe currently, the world is getting a first-hand lesson in the power of benign cyber systems to damage economies, influence migration of populations, even wage war.  Just imagine the wreckage a malignant cyber attack could create.

Are your remote employees following strict cybersecurity protocols regarding password control?  Tracking and protecting the physical location of their laptops and smartphones?  Accessing only approved downloads and avoiding personal usage or inappropriate personal apps on company equipment?

Keep in mind that three out of four business leaders have concerns about cybersecurity regarding remote work.  Being concerned is one thing.  Acting on those concerns by clearly stating acceptable and unacceptable cyber behavior, and enforcing those standards, is what can make a real difference.

Contact the professionals at The Reschini Group for more information.

Copyright 2022 The Reschini Group

The Reschini Group provides these updates for information only, and does not provide legal advice.  To make decisions regarding insurance matters, please consult directly with a licensed insurance professional or firm.

 

Preparing for the Threat: Attitudes and Actions on Cybersecurity

 

It shocks absolutely no one that cybersecurity remains a growing threat to businesses, large and small, and that breaches of that security have increased both in number and in the resulting financial impact.  What may be surprising, however, are statistics compiled by various governmental and industry sources surrounding cybersecurity, including the following:

 

  • Cybersecurity remains a priority risk concern among all businesses.
  • The three largest areas of concern within the scope of cybersecurity are: falling victim to a security breach, discovering unauthorized access to financial accounts, and suffering an internal system glitch.
  • Concerns on the rise among businesses include: outsiders hacking into systems used for business operations, cyber extortion, and questions about having sufficient resources to recover from a cyber event.
  • One in five businesses have suffered a data breach or cyber attack over the past year, double the number recorded in 2015.
  • 52% of businesses say becoming a cyber victim is inevitable.
  • Only 36% of businesses worry about their employees being tricked into transferring funds, despite a 2,370% increase in losses from such scams over the past two years.
  • 95% of businesses say their operations depend on computer systems running flawlessly.
  • 23% of businesses report that they are unfamiliar with their cyber insurance options.
  • 55% of businesses have not done a cyber risk assessment, 62% do not have a business continuity plan, and 63% have not assessed the cyber security of vendors with access to their data – but 91% of these same businesses say they are prepared to weather a cybersecurity event.
  • 50% of businesses have not purchased cyber insurance.

 

The professionals at The Reschini Group can help businesses across all categories and sizes get a true, accurate, realistic picture of their cyber exposure and fashion an insurance approach to safeguard against attack or malfunction.  Contact us to talk more about your cybersecurity situation.

Copyright 2019 The Reschini Group

The Reschini Group provides these updates for information only, and does not provide legal advice. To make decisions regarding insurance matters, please consult directly with a licensed insurance professional or firm.

 

[Sources: 2018 Travelers Risk Index and FBI PSA https://www.ic3.gov/media/2017/170504.aspx]