‘Cyber exposure calculator’ from Hiscox
Specialist global insurer Hiscox has announced the launch of a new facility, a Cyber Exposure Calculator, created to help businesses calculate how hard they would be hit financially should they fall victim to a cyberattack. The calculator is part of a range of products and services launched under the Hiscox CyberClear Centre umbrella, in order to promote better awareness of the risks of the new online landscape and to protect against them accordingly.
“Most organisations now depend on data in order to operate, but it’s traditionally been very difficult to quantify the value of that data,” said Gareth Wharton, CEO of Hiscox Cyber and Head of the CyberClear Centre. “With hacker techniques increasing in sophistication and attacks becoming more targeted in their nature, it’s important that businesses fully understand the risks they face.”
Free to use, the tool analyses the specific sector of a business, the country in which it operates and its revenue, and gives a detailed breakdown of the potential cyber risk exposure and the value of the company’s data. It also gives insight into the sorts of cyberattacks that particular businesses are more likely to face. The facility was developed in partnership with a number of consulting firms.
“We’ve developed the Hiscox Cyber Exposure Calculator to help take away some of the guess work and raise awareness of the potential financial impact of a cyberattack,” Wharton added, “encouraging businesses to think about how to manage the cyber risk through a combination of risk reduction and insurance.”
The first quarter of this year saw ransomware attacks dramatically increase, according to global cyber risk and insurance company Beazley, with a 105-per-cent rise noted, compared with the first quarter of 2018. As well as more attacks, Beazley reported that cyber attackers are targeting ever bigger organisations and demanding ever higher payments.
“First, anytime the average ransom demand goes up, it’s going to pull in more attack groups interested in making money,” said Bill Siegel, CEO of Coveware. “Second, the easy availability of exploit kits (such as banking Trojans) and RaaS means there is a lower barrier to entry for would-be hackers.”
In an increasingly dangerous world, any tools and services that can help businesses better prepare for interventions by malicious actors are surely welcome; and hopefully as awareness rises, said unscrupulous parties will have their work cut out for them.