Cyber threats remain one of the Top 3 business concerns among supply chain leaders, according to a new report from The Travelers Companies Inc.
In fact, 58% said they worry some or a great deal about cyber, ranking it just behind medical cost inflation (60%) and broad economic uncertainty (59%).
“Cyber risks have extremely serious consequences – one attack can weaken an organization or potentially put it out of business. Fortunately, there are effective measures that companies can take to address vulnerabilities and successfully manage through a cyber event,” says Tim Francis, enterprise cyber lead at Travelers.
Key takeaways:
- At least 25% of businesses have not taken essential steps, such as installing firewall or virus protection and implementing data backup and password updates. A much larger percentage say they don’t use endpoint detection and response (64%), conduct cyber assessments for vendors (57%) or customers’ assets (56%), have an incident response plan (50%), or utilize multifactor authentication for remote access (44%).
- Nearly one-quarter of survey participants (23%) said their company has suffered a cyberattack, with almost half of those (49%) occurring in the last 12 months.
- Ransomware ranked ninth among cyber-specific business worries, despite it being a leading cause of cyber-related claims in the industry.
- Among medium-sized businesses, 74% said they have a cyber policy, up from 67% in 2022. Large companies came in at 72%, the same percentage as a year ago, while small businesses (34%) are still the least likely to secure cyber insurance coverage. Overall, 60% said their company has cyber insurance; five years ago, it was 39%.
- 81% of respondents feel that having proper cybersecurity controls in place is critical to the well-being of their company, up from 78% last year and 69% in 2018.
“While the business community has come a long way in preparing for and responding to a cyberattack, the survey results show that more can still be done,” Francis adds. “A well-designed, multi-layered cybersecurity program can help mitigate the threat of a cyber event, and we encourage organizations to work closely with their independent insurance agent as we all navigate an evolving cyber landscape.”
