Cyber claims frequency and severity down in H1, focus on small firms

Cyber claims severity decreased by 8% in H1 2022 to an average loss of $175,258, and claims frequency decreased by 7% over the same period, net security firm and cyber insurer  Coalition said in its mid-year cyber claims report based on its own clients' experience.

Manufacturing and industrial businesses related to the supply chain continue to top the charts as the most targeted industries.

But small business is increasingly falling into cybercriminal sights. The group had suffered a “drastic spike” in claims severity in H2 2021, and saw sums rise 15% year on year in H1 2022 to $139,000.

Employees remain the weak link. In H1 2022, phishing accounted for 57.9% of reported claims, up from 41-42% throughout the prior year.

Ransomware is falling as a portion of the whole. H1 2022 brought a “slight decrease” in both frequency and severity in ransomware versus H2 2021.

“But the biggest shift is the decrease in both ransom demands and payment,” authors claimed. Ransomware demands decreased from $1.37 million in H2 2021 to $896,000 in H1 2022.

Coalition bases its semi-annual reports on a dataset built from the 160,000 businesses covered by the firm.

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