Quick Announcement: We're switching gears this week and moving onto a new sector--manufacturing. Stay tuned for additional announcements.
With the new year approaching, many firms are considering how best to protect their enterprises on the IT front. This is especially true for manufacturers, who often have to balance the risks and interests in their supply chains as they bring their products to market. As we've discussed in the past, big supply chains often carry numerous security risks by virtue of their size and intricacy. Even with centralized supply chain management software, dealing with multiple parties, who may or may not have good IT practices, will inevitably open firms up to breaches if they aren't careful.
Cyber-insurance companies have observed these problems and are beginning to implement changes in their policies to better protect themselves and their clients from unnecessary risk. Let's take a look at what manufacturers and other cyber-insurance policy holders can expect from their carriers in 2022.
What to Expect for Next Year
A recent article in Insurance Business Magazine outlines the sorts of changes carriers are planning to implement for 2022. Many carriers hope to implement changes like, "enforcing multi-factor authentication (MFA) across the corporate network, conducting regular employee training, closing remote desktop protocol (RDP), completing software patches and updates, and if a company has the budget, using endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools to detect and mitigate cyber threats."
These measures are responses to the increased sophistication of cyber attacks. Older security measures, like passwords and virus monitoring, are proving to be inadequate in curbing the severity of (and potential losses incurred by) hacking attacks. According to the Institute of Security and Technology, a collaborative of researchers whose mission is to, "enhance the security of the global commons," money paid out as the result of ransomware attacks increased 300% in 2020. And that's just one kind of threat that firms need to be aware of.
The breadth of these changes can catch some firms off guard, and the Insurance Business article states that many carriers are now contacting their clients months ahead of their renewal dates to coordinate security plans for the following year. Of course, both insurance policies and upgrades to security are expensive. For smaller firms, implementing all of these security changes may simply be out of budget.
Luckily, many carriers are willing to meet their clients halfway, so long as they're serious about protecting themselves: "As long as businesses have a well-documented plan in place to show carriers how and when they plan to complete certain security measures, then they will usually get coverage."
As renewal periods appear on the horizon, it's important to have a team of experts on hand to offer advice and guidance on implementing these upgrades. Titan Tech can not only advise on security measures but also help keep firms informed on contemporary cyber threats, shop for products that will meet their needs without breaking their wallets, and even aid in securing reliable cybersecurity insurance. If you're interested in learning how Titan Tech can help your business, use their contact page to schedule a free consultation.
And join us again on Thursday for more tech news.