NetDiligence Publishes Fourth Annual Study of Actual Payouts on Cyber Claims and Data Breaches

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PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 3, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

NetDiligence®, a leading cyber risk assessment and data breach services company, announced today it has published its fourth annual Cyber Claims Study, a study of actual losses for covered data breaches paid out by various leading cyber liability insurance carriers.

This year's report summarizes NetDiligence's findings for a sampling of 117 cyber liability insurance claims, 111 of which involved the exposure of sensitive data. The study examines the type of data exposed, the cause of loss, the business sector in which the incident occurred and the size of the affected organization. For the first time this year, the study also examines claims due to third-party breaches and claims due to insider involvement, both accidental and malicious.

Once again, however, the primary focus of the study is the costs incurred by underwriters due to cyber claim events, including Crisis Services (forensics, notification, and legal counsel), Legal (class action lawsuit defense and settlement), Regulatory (defense and settlement) and PCI (fines).

"As an independent and trusted partner to the cyber liability insurance industry, NetDiligence is uniquely positioned to combine data from multiple insurers so that the pool of claims is large enough to ascertain real costs, project future trends and better educate concerned Risk Managers and CFOs," said Mark Greisiger, president of NetDiligence. "We are gratified that our cyber liability insurance carrier and broker partners continue to share some of their loss data with NetDiligence. Without them, the valuable insights this educational study provides would not be possible."

Sponsoring this year's NetDiligence Cyber Claims Study are AllClear ID, McGladrey and ICSA Labs.

Bo Holland, founder and CEO, indicated that AllClear ID sponsored the study again this year because understanding the total costs of a data breach is of utmost importance to cyber insurers and their customers. "Underwriting cyber insurance policies is becoming increasingly complex in the face of the new cyber risk threats. The insight this study provides will help cyber insurers and businesses mitigate the financial risks presented by cyber attacks."

Andy Obuchowski, security and privacy director at McGladrey, discussed his firm's decision to sponsor this year's study. "The reputational and financial impacts to small and middle market companies can be more damaging than the Fortune 500 organizations we have read about in the media, since many do not have the resources to address security and privacy issues themselves. The data points contained in this report provide insight into the costs associated with data breach incidents and the value of understanding related risks. This study can help further educate the market on potential risks and associated damages and promote more proactive efforts to help protect organizations in today's environment."

The study is now available for download at the NetDiligence website (http://www.netdiligence.com/articles.php). eRisk Hub® licensors and their clients can download the study from the Learning Center of the eRisk Hub. The eRisk Hub (www.eriskhub.com) is a web-based cyber risk management portal that helps organizations prevent and recover from data breaches.

About NetDiligence®
NetDiligence® is a cyber risk assessment and data breach services company. Since 2001, NetDiligence has conducted thousands of enterprise-level cyber risk assessments for a broad variety of corporate clients, including well-known names in banking, brokerage, mortgage, insurance, clearinghouse, and other financial service sectors. NetDiligence services are used by leading insurers in the U.S. and U.K. that offer "hacker insurance" for businesses. These insurers rely on NetDiligence cyber risk assessments to support both loss-control and educational objectives. For more information, visit www.netdiligence.com.