The Expert Podcast

A recent study from the insurance industry shows that many people are now aware of cyber insurance liability problems, and most of them are trying to take action. But there are still some very common practices that are not completely erased from bad cyber protection policies by companies and individuals.

According to a survey from Chubb, one of the largest insurance companies, 92 percent of people said they were worried about a cyber breach. So, the vast majority of people are worried about that, and rightfully so. This is up about 20 percent from prior years. The vice president of personal risk said one of the biggest takeaways is that it validated what they were thinking: people are aware of these risks. During the pandemic, a lot of people used remote technologies, which helped them be aware of this potential problem. Most people do things like multi-factor authentication, where they get a text message before logging in to make sure it's really them. Eighty percent of people update their passwords regularly within the last 12 months. Seventy percent said they updated the password voluntarily without being prompted. That's a good thing, but there are some downsides. Half of people still use their pet's name for a password or other easily identifiable information. This was particularly true for high-net-worth people. Eighty-five percent of high-net-worth people use something that's easy, like their pet's name or some other piece of information that somebody could find out about them online.

Some other things that were found: people might use public Wi-Fi to log into bank accounts. That's dangerous because sometimes those Wi-Fi nodes are not 100 percent protected, and other people can get into them. It might even be a fake Wi-Fi network. It might not even be at the coffee shop; it might be somebody with a computer that makes up a fake name that sounds like the coffee shop to steal your information. And of course, being an insurance industry survey, they talked about how more people were taking out personal cyber insurance to protect their data. Thirty-nine percent of the people who responded said they had a personal policy for cyber data, including a majority of affluent and high-net-worth individuals. Look at the percentages as they go up: 39 percent of all respondents said they have a personal cyber policy; affluent individuals, which are upper middle class, 63 percent; and high net worth, 83 percent. So, it shows that the more affluent and sophisticated people are, the more important they see that the insurance product is for cyber liability.

This is a good snapshot of what is happening with awareness and action on cyber defense, cyber liability, and cyber insurance at the personal lines consumer level of the insurance market.