Private insurance companies are beginning to look with trepidation at the cyber attacks suffered by companies. The U.S. watchdog warned of “catastrophic financial losses” that insurers could suffer. These are being limited in the coverage provided to customers.
The search is on to find a safe model that cannot bankrupt private insurers. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) raised the issue of the growth of cybercrime. Cyber risks must be addressed, according to the GAO, with a greater commitment from the State.
Fear of cyber attacks
Different U.S. government agencies have presented a joint report to quantify the risk of cyber attacks with the current infrastructure. These entities have put forward a critical model with many vulnerabilities. In addition to this, the variety of actors that have the capacity to exploit various threats is also taken into account.
Most of the piracy groups reported by these government agencies target countries. Nations such as China, Russia, North Korea and Iran are in the crosshairs. This information was provided by the Office of Infrastructure and Cybersecurity (ODNI). The report also details some non-state actors such as organized cyber-criminal gangs.
In 2016, some 19,060 incidents were recorded between North American companies and public bodies that were affected by cyber-attacks. This is by aggregating attacks in categories such as ransomware, data breaches, denial-of-service attacks and enterprise email. The cost of the losses for that year was US$470 million. The 2021 report estimated 26,074 incidents with a loss value of close to US$2.6 billion.
