Rancho Mesa's Alyssa Burley and Media Communications & Client Services Coordinator Megan Lockhart recap Rancho Mesa's recent Cyber Liability Explained: Hacking Trends for 2023 workshop.

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Cyber Liability Explained: Hacking Trends for 2023 Workshop - VIDEO

Director/Host: Alyssa Burley

Guest: Megan Lockhart

Producer/Editor: Lauren Stumpf

Music: "Home" by JHS Pedals, “News Room News” by Spence

© Copyright 2023. Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

Transcript

[Introduction Music]

Alyssa Burley: Hi, this is Alyssa Burley with Rancho Mesa’s Media Communications and Client Services Department. Thank you for listening to today’s top Rancho Mesa news brought to you by our safety and risk management network, StudioOne™. Welcome back, everyone. My guest is Megan Lockhart, Media Communications and Client Services Coordinator with Rancho Mesa. Today, we’re going to recap our recent Cyber Liability Explained: Hacking Trends for 2023 workshop. Megan, welcome to the show.

Megan Lockhart: Happy to be here.

AB: Now, every year, we host a workshop or webinar where we bring in a cyber-liability expert to talk about coverages and give attendees a little insight into how the world of hacking actually works and why they need to protect their businesses from this type of risk. So, will you give us a brief overview of the workshop?

ML: Sure, so, on Friday, July 14th, 2023, Rancho Mesa hosted the cyber liability workshop at the San Diego Mission Valley library. Beau Bechelli, Vice President with Evolve MGA provided a compelling presentation. He covered the current state of the cyber insurance marketplace, common misconceptions about cyber exposures, ransomware trends in 2023, social engineering and theft of funds, obligations as a data owner, and how business can stay secure. It was a lot of information, but he was able to get through it all in an hour.

AB: So, what was the biggest take-a-way from the workshop that you had?

ML: I think mostly, I was really shocked with how much cyber-attacks are costing businesses.  In the presentation, Beau mentioned that the average ransom payment in quarter one of 2023 was $327,883. Last year, roughly $10.3 billion in assets were lost to cyber-attacks. That’s a lot to lose and it can happen to small, midsize and large companies.

AB: That’s absolutely right. I remember Beau said in quarter one of 2023, and that’s just a few months ago, companies with less than 1,000 employees, and that’s really the size of our small and midsize clients, experience roughly 72.5% of the cyber-attacks. Those aren’t good odds. So, what are some of the misconceptions business owners have about cyber-attacks?  

ML: Yeah, well, we hear clients say “only tech companies need cyber insurance,” “my IT provider takes care of that,” or “hackers wouldn’t go after a small company like mine.”  But, all of those excuses could be a recipe for disaster, especially for small and midsize companies.

AB: Absolutely. Hacking can happen to anyone. Beau mentioned that the number one cause of cyber-attacks is human error. So, if you have humans working in your business, like we all do, you could be at risk. Megan, if listeners are interested in watching the Cyber Liability Explained: Hacking Trends for 2023, how can they access it?

ML: Yeah, there are two options. We’ll include the video in the next edition of our newsletter and there will be a link to the on-demand video in this episode’s notes.

[Closing Music]

AB: Great, I think it’s worth taking the hour to watch the webinar and get familiar with cyber liability insurance, what’s really at stake, and how business owners can protect what they’ve built. Megan, thanks for joining me in StudioOne™.

ML: Thanks for having me.

AB: This is Alyssa Burley with Rancho Mesa. Thanks for tuning in to our latest episode produced by StudioOne™. For more information, visit us at ranchomesa.com and subscribe to our weekly newsletter.