Managing cyber-risk must be a key focus
The threat of cyberattacks is growing in both scale and sophistication. Consider the following findings from the NetDiligence/RSM 2016 Annual Cyber Claims study:
- As of the end of November 2016, approximately 900 data breaches had been reported, compared to 781 in all of 2015.
- Cybercriminals are targeting companies of all sizes, with 87 percent of reported breaches coming from companies with annual revenues of less than $2 billion.
- Breaches of any size and at any size company can be extremely costly. Our study found breaches with total costs of more than $5 million at companies of almost every size. In one case, a breach involving only a single data record had a cost between $1.5 million and $2 million.
Cybercriminals are targeting all industries, including the gaming and hospitality industry. Among attacks detected in Las Vegas alone was one where the attackers had breached servers throughout a company. Malware detected in the company’s point of sale/card processing system resulted in fraudulent activity on guests’ cards, with attackers gaining access to guests’ card information, including names, card numbers, expiration dates and internal verification codes. This attack went undetected for more than a year and affected 20 hotel properties and thousands of guests.