Major cyber attack could cause damage totaling £40.5billion
The threat posed by a cyber attack is gaining traction as major organisations begin to understand the potential breadth and true cost of a hack.
Now, new research from Lloyd’s has suggested that the consequences of an extreme cyber attack could even be equivalent to the losses incurred by a catastrophic natural disaster.
A major cyber attack could potentially generate losses of £40.5bn ($53bn), says it’s report “Counting the cost: Cyber exposure decoded”. That sum is equivalent to economic losses caused by tropical cyclone Superstorm Sandy in 2012.
The report, developed with risk analytics firm Cyence, considered two scenarios, totting up the damages to £40.5bn ($53bn).
The scenarios:
- A malicious hack that takes down a cloud service provider
and
- Attacks on computer operating systems run by a large number of businesses around the world
The findings also reveal that the majority of those economic losses are not currently insured. That leaves an insurance gap as high as 83% ($45bn) in the cloud service disruption scenario, and uninsured losses reaching 93% ($26bn) in the mass vulnerability setting.
Inga Beale, CEO of Lloyd’s, said: “This report gives a real sense of the scale of damage a cyber-attack could cause the global economy. Just like some of the worst natural catastrophes, cyber events can cause a severe impact on businesses and economies, trigger multiple claims and dramatically increase insurers’ claims costs.”
Demand for cyber insurance is increasing as businesses wake up to the consequences of mass data loss, cyber theft and stolen information. If you are worried your business could be vulnerable, get in touch with our cyber insurance advisers today on 01924 278222. Cyber liability is here to help protect your business. First party insurance covers the assets of your business and may include loss or damage to digital assets such as data or software programmes and business interruption from network downtime. Third party cyber liability insurance covers the assets of others, such as your customers, and can include costs associated with security and privacy breaches and multi-media liability to cover costs arising from defamation, breach of privacy or negligence in publication in electronic or print media.