Almost 75% of companies were victims of a cyber attack in 2021

July 6. (Portaltic/EP) –

Nearly 75 percent of companies reported having suffered at least one cyberattack in 2021, with the ‘ransomware’ considered the main cybersecurity threat suffered by these organizations.

The pandemic of Covid-19 it has accelerated the digital transformation of companies, which in many cases have relied on remote modalities, such as teleworking, to maintain their activity.

According to a report by the insurance brokerage and risk consultant Marsh, developed in collaboration with microsoft, One of the consequences after almost three years of interruption of face-to-face work has been that most companies distrust their ability to manage cybersecurity risk.

The study, The State of Cyber ​​Resilience, has surveyed the opinion of more than 660 managers in areas related to cybersecurity risk between November and December 2021 and has analyzed how cybersecurity risk is perceived by executives from various areas (cybersecurity , IT, risk management and insurance, finance and executive leadership).

One of the main conclusions of the report is that 73 percent of companies admit to having been the victim of at least one cyber attack in 2021. Based on their income level, larger companies faced more attacks both in number and variety.

So much so that 85 percent of them said they had been the target of at least one attack, compared to smaller organizations (68 percent).

The biggest threat companies face according to this analysis is ‘ransomware’, a method that consists of the kidnapping of data through a malicious program. In order to recover this information, cybercriminals request an economic amount as compensation.

In relation to these attacks, Marsh has warned that 71 percent of those surveyed fear such an attack. The percentage of companies concerned about this situation is even higher after isolating by region on the European continent, where 79 percent adhere to this opinion.

In Asia, the most feared threat is the loss or theft of personal data (68 percent) and, in Latin America and the Caribbean, the loss of private information (44 percent). For their part, in the United Kingdom and Ireland the greatest fear is that their supply chain is compromised (35 percent).

These fears have permeated business leaders’ confidence in managing cybersecurity risks in their organization to the point where only 19 percent of respondents are currently confident in their ability to address such issues.

Despite these doubts, 79 percent of organizations have claimed to have a response plan for a possible attack of these characteristics at the cybersecurity level.

CYBER INSURANCE, INCREASINGLY COMMON

This report recommends hiring and using cyber insurance to manage the risk of cyber attacks. In this sense, 63 percent of those surveyed recognize its importance within the strategy against cyber threats.

For their part, 61 percent of those surveyed acknowledge that they have purchased cyber insurance in 2021. This figure doubles that registered in 2019 (30 percent), the year before the pandemic. In addition, 41 percent have acknowledged receive advice from your insurer to take further action.

Looking ahead, the report indicates that nearly a quarter of organizations that already have cyber insurance believe their spending on cyber insurance will rise 25 percent this year.