I attended the MAPLE-SEC conference this week which I thought was quite good to provide a good overview of the state of cybersecurity and cybercrime, in Canada, in 2021.

On thing we learned during the conference was that a majority of businesses faced with a ransomware incident during the last year, ended-up paying the criminals, to get their data back and/or to avoid its disclosure to third parties. Not too surprisingly, this type of crime is pretty consistently on the rise, as the typical victim ends-up capitulating and rewarding criminals, by paying some sort of ransom.

We also learned recently that a 2021 report by cybersecurity firm Sophos revealed that about a third of businesses were the victim of some sort of ransomware attack during the last year. That makes for ALOT of businesses and data!

With stats like these, it’s not surprising that insurers offering cyber-insurance products are now feeling the pinch. Cyber-insurers are now apparently losing considerable money because of this type of policy. Because of this, an expert in insurance law who spoke at the MAPLE-SEC conference warned everyone that cyber-risk insurance coverage is about to get substantially more expensive for businesses everywhere. His advice as to this was to get the best cyber-insurance you can afford, right now.

Recent stats clearly show ransomware is unfortunately here to stay, as we’re now seemingly paying the price for collectively minimizing the importance of cyber-security for so long.