Small Companies Underestimate Cyber Dangers Regardless of Elevated Threats: IBC Survey

Most small companies don’t imagine they are going to expertise a cyber assault, but many workers are involved they’re placing their organizations in danger, in line with a current ballot by Insurance coverage Bureau of Canada (IBC).

IBC’s 2023 Cyber Safety Survey discovered that greater than 60% of small companies imagine their enterprise is simply too small to be focused by cyber criminals. This quantity rises to 73% for sole proprietors.

Whereas the vast majority of enterprise homeowners surveyed weren’t involved about their employees posing a cyber threat, three out of 4 workers surveyed admit to having taken at the least one motion that poses a cyber safety threat, the ballot discovered.

The ballot additionally confirmed rising worker issues with cyber security, together with:

• 25% of workers don’t really feel they’ve the instruments and coaching wanted to determine potential cyber threats at work,
• 22% of workers are involved their actions may contribute to a cyber assault or information breach,
• 10% of workers have shared confidential info with a publicly accessible chatbot or synthetic intelligence (AI) platform.

“Whereas giant corporations are sometimes widespread targets for cyber criminals, small and medium-sized companies are additionally at a heightened threat,” mentioned Liam McGuinty, vice chairman of Technique at IBC. “Each employers and employees play an vital function in cyber safety, and common employees coaching is a vital part in decreasing threat.”

Regardless of almost 40% of small enterprise workers indicating that they’d seen a rise in rip-off makes an attempt during the last 12 months, employer responses confirmed that they will not be making sufficient investments in cyber safety:

• 69% don’t contemplate cyber safety a monetary precedence,
• Solely 20% have any intention of buying cyber insurance coverage inside the subsequent yr,
• 17% don’t assume they might qualify for cyber insurance coverage.

“All companies, however particularly people who rely closely on a web based presence and use e-commerce, ought to contemplate contacting their insurance coverage consultant to assist discover methods to handle their cyber threat,” added McGuinty. “Nevertheless, cyber insurance coverage is only one part of an total cyber threat mitigation technique – it’s not a alternative for cyber resilience.”

Cyber Savvy Evaluation Launched

As a part of Cyber Safety Consciousness Month, IBC is launching a self-assessment instrument to assist enterprise homeowners perceive the steps most cyber insurers need companies to take to cut back their cyber threat.

Whereas this free instrument can not present an evaluation of a enterprise’s precise threat profile, its questions might help enterprise homeowners gauge their stage of readiness for cyber insurance coverage and assist decide which areas they could must give attention to to bolster their cyber resilience.

The Cyber Savvy Evaluation is offered till Oct. 31, 2023 at cybersavvycanada.ca, together with sources and details about the proactive measures companies can take to assist scale back their cyber threat.

Survey Methodology

Findings are from a survey carried out by Insurance coverage Bureau of Canada from Aug. 3-9, 2023 amongst 305 Canadian enterprise homeowners and resolution makers who work at corporations with as much as 500 workers. All respondents had been members of the net Angus Reid Discussion board. Interviews had been carried out in English and French. For comparability functions solely, a pattern of this measurement would yield a margin of error of +/- 5.6 share factors, 19 instances out of 20.

As well as, the IBC surveyed from Aug. 3-9, 2023 1,506 employed Canadians aged 18-plus who work at organizations with 2 to 499 workers and work totally on a pc or different digital units. All respondents had been members of the net Angus Reid Discussion board and interviews had been carried out in English and French. For comparability functions solely, a pattern of this measurement would yield a margin of error of +/-2.5 share factors, 19 instances out of 20.

Supply: Insurance coverage Bureau of Canada

Subjects
Trends
Cyber
Commercial Lines
Business Insurance