The Graham Company recently conducted a 2015 Business Risk Survey revealing that nearly three quarters of business leaders are most concerned about potential risks associated with cyber security threats to their organizations. The survey also found that even though business leaders perceive that they are taking adequate measures to protect their organizations, in reality they’re falling short of doing what’s necessary to mitigate the risk associated with these potential threats.
“In the modern-day business environment where everything is interconnected, the potential threats facing a business are immense,” said Ken Ewell, President and COO of The Graham Company, in a press release. “This complexity of risks has caused many business leaders to become overwhelmed and unknowingly expose their businesses to risks that threaten their bottom line.”
When asked to consider the single biggest risk facing organizations, business leaders’ opinions varied, but cyber security had the highest proportion, with 21% of respondents naming it as the single risk they were most concerned about. Tied for the second greatest risk were professional liability (i.e. employee errors and omissions) and legal liability issues (16%), followed by healthcare costs (14%).
For many, cyber liability is becoming more of a necessity for businesses. Even though cyber liability Insurance has been around for over 10 years, the data collected to underwrite this type of risk continues to evolve.
With the ongoing evolution of cyber liability insurance, ACORD continues to work with our members to ensure our standards are properly suited to transfer the required data for these policies.
The first Cyber and Privacy Liability changes were introduced to the ACORD P&C Standards in June 2015 with the release of the ACORD P&C XML 1.29. The changes included the addition of a Cyber and Privacy Liability line of business code, in both AL3 and XML, along with new cyber policy coverage codes and coverage options, and questions unique to Cyber Liability.
The recently re-initiated Specialty Lines Working Group continues to work to identify additional ways to send Cyber Liability electronically and align the ACORD 834 Cyber Liability and Privacy Section and the ACORD 825 Professional Specialty Insurance Section with the data standards.
If you are interested in lending your expertise in the development of the evolving Cyber Liability Standards, or just want to keep appraised of the latest developments you can do so by following the ACORD Specialty Lines Working Group on acord.org.