Traveler survey shows cybersecurity risk is top concern

Cybersecurity is growing as a concern for business leaders, and more companies are getting cybersecurity insurance coverage, according to the latest annual report. Traveler Risk Index released on September 24.

Based on a survey of more than 1,200 respondents, 62% said they were somewhat or very concerned about cyber risks, surpassing last year’s top concern, medical cost inflation, which ranked first at 59% of respondents this year. The percentage of respondents who now have cyber risk insurance was 65%, up from 60% last year. In 2018, 39% said they had this coverage.

“We saw an increase in 2019-20 when we started to see an increase in ransom requests,” Tim Francis, chief cyber officer at Travelers, said in a press briefing. “Why isn’t it 100 percent? There’s a lot of factors that go into it. I think that’s partly because in cyber insurance it’s not mandatory. Other types of insurance are — auto insurance and property insurance.”

With 30 percent of respondents saying they don’t have cyber risk insurance, small businesses were less likely than medium and large companies to have coverage. Small businesses reporting coverage increased from 34% in 2023 to 41% this year. Medium-sized companies increased to 77% from 74%; and large business increased to 78% from 72%.

“Cyber ​​is still a relatively new type of insurance, and many business owners may not have had a conversation about cyber insurance,” Francis said. “They are concerned about cyber risks. They are aware of it. They may not be aware of cyber insurance. They may think that cyber insurance is something that only large companies buy, or that only financial services or health care companies buy. Neither is true – there are cyber insurance products for almost any industry, any size company, and they are priced appropriately for the exposures.”

Slightly more companies said they had a cyber incident, rising from 23% in 2023 to 24% this year. However, more than half of them said they had an incident in the past year. Travelers also asked interviewees about their top cyber risk concerns. Ransomware was the top concern at 54%, followed by unauthorized or unsafe computer activity by employees at 53% and system errors at 53%.