As hackers get more sophisticated, companies face more cyber threats than ever. The consequences of a cyberattack can be catastrophic, harming a company’s financial bottom line as well as its reputation.

Most companies have an online presence and routinely use digital tools like email. Savvy business owners are turning to cyber liability insurance to predict vulnerabilities and address problems before they arise. With cyber insurance coverage, if the worst possible scenario happens, you’ll be protected from financial losses associated with data destruction, theft, hacking, and more.

This article outlines some of the cutting-edge methodologies for threat preemption to reduce the risk of your company being harmed by cyber threats.

Emerging Trends in Cyber Risk Management

With the advent of machine learning algorithms, artificial intelligence, and advanced analytics, companies providing cyber insurance coverage have become more adept at identifying and mitigating risks to keep your business safe.  

Companies used to rely solely on historical data to identify patterns and forecast trends. While historical information is still valuable, it is only one piece of the puzzle. Today, we can stack past data with various sources of real-time information, unconventional sources like social media, and even the dark web.

How Cyber Insurance Companies Leverage Predictive Cyber Intelligence

It’s a scary world out there, and businesses of all sizes are under a constant threat of attack. According to Security Magazine, a successful cyber-attack is completed every 39 seconds, which equals about 2,200 attacks each day. Plus, it’s estimated that 54% of companies have experienced a cyberattack in the last 12 months.

Whether you have an army of IT professionals or you’re a small company trying to set up your phone tree, you can’t afford not to have cyber protection. With the help of a professional partner, you can bolster your security in the following ways:

1. Provide custom risk assessments: With access to mountains of data and advanced processing capabilities, it is now possible to identify specific risk factors and create custom plans and policies to suit an individual company. For example, the degree of risk can be predicted by looking at an organization’s industry, location, size, and infrastructure.
    
2. Implement risk scoring: Predictively evaluating risk can result in getting a letter grade based on various organizational factors. Lower-risk companies can get more favorable terms and lower cyber insurance premiums. Higher-risk companies can get guidance to improve their risk profiles.  
    
3. Conduct proactive threat intelligence forecasting: This collaborative approach identifies vulnerabilities and helps you patch them. From a practical standpoint, this means gathering data, applying it to a forecasting model, and discovering patterns and trends that can be potential threats.
    
4. Thwart ransomware attacks: You can think of a cyber insurance company like a strategic partner that provides backup recommendations and other protective measures based on your unique risk profile.
    
5. Provide employee training: Human error is one of the most significant cyber threats today. Phishing, data breaches, and ransomware attacks are often the result of an employee unwittingly opening up a giant back door.
   
   Equipped with knowledge of the latest cyberattack methodologies, we can arm your team and make them more aware of potential threats and better informed on how to stop them in their tracks.
    
6. Detect fraud: Predictive analytics can serve as a powerful weapon against fraud. Specifically, AI-based monitoring systems can keep an eye on policyholders’ business activities to identify any red flags, irregular patterns, or signs of fraudulent activity without compromising the privacy of policyholders.

Don't Wait for an Attack To Get Cyber Insurance Coverage

Did you know that a data breach costs a company an average of $9.48 million? This figure can be catastrophic to a business, and it can be difficult to recover from. Insurance offers peace of mind for all of our valuable assets, and that includes your cyber security.

Current cyber insurance trends point to increased vulnerabilities across supply chains, and you can expect more government regulation in this area. At Gilsbar, we offer comprehensive and competitively-priced cyber insurance coverage. Contact us today to learn more.