82% of Indian Firms Are Cyber-Security Insured: Survey

More than 80% of Indian firms are insured with cyber-security, second globally after the UK, according to a survey.

According to a survey by FICO, 82 percent of Indian firms are insured with cyber-security. It said eight out of ten Indian firms have got cybersecurity insurance but only half of them have full coverage and only 48 percent of Indian firms said their cybersecurity insurance covers all risks.

The survey, which was conducted in 11 countries by research and consultancy firm Ovum, for Silicon Valley analytics firm FICO, shows that the UK tops the list with 90 percent companies there claiming to possess cyber-security license. With 78 percent cyber-security coverage, Canada came third.

Among the 500 companies surveyed in India, only 44 percent of the firms have said their insurer based their premiums on an accurate analysis of their risk profile and just 18 percent of Indian executives who were surveyed said that their firm has no cybersecurity insurance.

“It’s is very encouraging to see the high uptake of cybersecurity insurance across India,” Vishal Goyal, country manager for India at FICO stated. “India has a well-developed IT sector and is on the front-foot with this issue. The data breaches in India in the past 12 months have continued to have an impact on local businesses, so there is recognition that insurance plays an important role in risk mitigation and is an important consideration to minimizing disruption.”

Last year, a study by Ponemon Institute, which investigated the cost of data breaches to Indian companies, revealed that the average total cost increased 12.3 percent, the size of breaches increased 6 percent and the loss of existing customers increased by 4.3 percent.

Among Indian companies, telecommunications firms were the most likely to have cybersecurity insurance — 80 percent had insurance while 60 percent reported it as comprehensive to their level of risk. This compares well to financial services, where 40 percent of firms have comprehensive coverage.

Maxine Holt, Research Director at Ovum said, “Indian companies are clearly leading the way when it comes to the take-up of cyber-insurance, with almost half having a comprehensive policy and a further one-third with at least some cover. Around two-thirds of surveyed organizations in India either use software to give a breach likelihood score or use an external agency to carry out risk assessments.”

The survey happened mostly through telephone interviews with 500 senior Indian executives, mainly from the IT function. Businesses from 11 other countries including the UK, the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Germany, India, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and South Africa took part in the survey. Responses were noted from various categories of firms such as financial services, telecommunications, retail and e-commerce, and power and utilities.