Not a day goes by where a cyber-related incident is not in the news. Hacktivists and cybercriminals alike (they are not one in the same, but the line can at times be blurred) will go after an individual or industry for fame, money or retribution. Whether they have a score to settle or are merely stretching their fingers over their keyboards, hackers can and will do what they can to upset you network system. If you don't have cyber liability insurance, paying for the damages out of pocket can quickly lead to bankruptcy.
If you work in an industry heavily targeted by cyber hackers, your business is most definitely at risk of being hit with a cyberattack. Here are three industries that time and again have proven a fruitful favorite to the cybercriminal.
1. The Healthcare System
In 2015, over 113 million private medical records were jeopardized. In an interview with PBS, co-founder and senior fellow at the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology (ICIT) James Scott said "electronic health records are 100 times more valuable than stolen credit cards. With credit cards, the money is insured. If the bank is FDIC-backed, most people who have their credit card numbers stolen won't actually lose the money. The bank makes up the difference. But with electronic health records, the reason that hospitals ... are such a big target, first, is because of the payoff."
According to the Infosec Institute, a single, compromised patient medical record can fetch $363 on the dark web. Scott continued, "if you purchase 100 electronic health records, you have everything for each of those people−social security number, all the addresses, their kids, their jobs." Information is vital in running a successful cyber con. The more private information the hacker has, the more abundant his haul. Unless the victim is able to get a new social security number (SSN), they will forever be plagued by the cyberattack.
2. Manufacturing Companies
The manufacturing news blog Apriso shares that cybercriminals are going after manufacturing companies for intellectual property and trade secrets. Hackers attack business manufacturing systems using four popular methods:
Wrappers: A form of malware "wrapped" in a legitimate software update coding. Security programs are unable to detect the malware due to the strength of the legitimate software's coding.
Watering Hole Attacks: The cybercriminal is able to infiltrate the system of a legitimate website. When another user visits the website, the cybercriminal is then able to infiltrate their network as well.
Drive-by Downloads: A form of malware that is downloaded when a user clicks on an infected link.
Cross-Site Scripting: Similar to a drive-by download, this type of attack is a downloaded script that takes login and password credentials from an unsuspecting user.
In 2015 alone, the average manufacturing cyberattack cost upwards of $1,728,000. If nearly $2 million is the average cost of damage, could your manufacturing company afford to get back on track?
3. Financial Services
Anyone in debt dreams of having the debt wiped from their records. Alas, cybercriminals don't care about the graduate $100,000 in debt, what they care about is filling their own pockets.
Financial services are three times more likely to be it by a cyberattack than other industries. The end goal of the cybercriminal is to gain access to personal identifiable information (PII) money and credit history. If the cybercriminal can access client birthdates and SSNs, they will be able to open new accounts under false pretenses and drain the financial clients of all that they have. Once this happens, do you think clients will upset with the cybercriminal or the financial institution they trusted to do business with?
Cyber liability insurance will cover the costs of a cyberattack, helping you to repair your company. Learn more today with CyberPolicy.
