Ransomware attacks tied to significant increase in cyber insurance claims

Cyberinsurance claims have significantly increased during the first six months of 2023, mostly due to ransomware attacks, according to The Record, a news site by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future. Almost 20% of cybersecurity incidents involving claims were attributed to ransomware attacks, most of which were linked to the Royal, BlackCat, and LockBit 3.0 ransomware strains, a Coalition report revealed. Average ransomware losses during the first half of 2023 exceeded $365,113, which is the highest on record, while average ransom demands reached $1.62 million, which is 74% higher than the previous year. While business email compromise claims declined during the first half of the year, funds transfer fraud claims rose by 15% over the same period, yielding losses of below $300,000, which was lower than $410,000 during the same period in 2021. "The growing sophistication of threat actors and their tactics is a contributing factor in the upward trend in FTF claims severity," said researchers.