Aon’s Cyber Security Risk Report: Potential Solutions for Canadian Businesses

Aon recently released its 2020 Cyber Security Risk Report Solving the Cyber Puzzle: The Unexpected Ways Cyber Risk Impacts Your Business. This year’s Report focuses on the unexpected ways that cyber risk impacts clients, in six less appreciated areas such as Intellectual Property, Mergers and Acquisitions, Retirement, Executives, Computer Crime, and The Corporation.
 
Solving the cyber puzzle requires a tactical mix of technology, people, and process – in the form of assessment, quantification, insurance, and incident response readiness. Cyber risk is an enterprise risk, not solely a technology concern. Companies have a duty to understand that corporate risk – and the threat to business continuity and customer data – is at stake.

What are the trends in Canada?
In Canada, business leaders are concerned about many of the same risks as outlined in the report, particularly cyber extortion as well as social engineering fraud such as business email compromise (BEC) and email account compromise (EAC).

Cyber extortion continues to be a big concern for Canadian organizations. Globally, ransomware is one of the fastest growing forms of cybercrime. In the last year, ransomware attacks have impacted both publicly traded and private companies of all sizes and across all sectors, resulting in losses in the millions. These types of attacks will not only undoubtedly continue, but will also evolve in terms of sophistication and level of maliciousness.

Social engineering has become an area of growing worry. Increasingly sophisticated and widespread social engineering schemes represent a significant risk for organizations and directors and officers. Any type of corporation can be the target of these types of scams, ranging from large corporations and tech companies to small businesses and non-profit organizations, often with their C-level executives being a specific focus. Losses from such schemes are costly and have created a demand for insurance solutions that can effectively mitigate the risk.

“The last year has seen a tremendous increase in cyber related claims in Canada”, said Brian Rosenbaum, National Cyber Leader at Aon in Canada. “The majority of these claims are cyber fraud claims which include business email compromise, push payment fraud, and cyber extortion. In speaking with clients and prospects cyber risks have become very real. There are very few who have not experienced an attempted cyber crime of some nature. Organizations are taking these risks seriously, which has made risk mitigation and risk transfer discussions easier.”

Learn more about the risks included in Aon’s 2020 Cyber Security Risk Report

For more information on improving your organization’s cyber resilience, visit Aon’s Cyber Risk Solutions.