Trends · 4 min read

Why Cyber Risk Tops the List of Threats to Canadian Businesses

Every business has a list of things that keep the owner up at night. For most Canadian businesses, cyber has climbed to the top of that list, and stayed there.

Why cyber leads

More of your business runs online every year. Remote work, cloud tools, connected devices, every one of them is another door. Attackers know it, and their tools are cheap and automated, so they hit thousands of businesses at once looking for an opening. Ransomware, business email compromise, and data theft are the usual results. The bill, in downtime, recovery, and lost trust, is what makes cyber the one that hurts most.

Cyber does not stay in its lane

Here is what makes cyber different from the other risks on your list. It sets them off. A ransomware attack locks your systems, so now you have a cash-flow problem. A breach exposes customer data, so now you have a regulatory problem and a reputation problem. A compromised vendor becomes your supply-chain problem. A serious cyber incident can trigger all of them at once. That is why it earns the top spot. It is not one risk. It is the thread that runs through the rest.

What actually helps

Two things, and you want both. Controls that make you a harder target, like MFA, tested backups, and staff training. And a cyber policy sized to your real exposure that pays for the damage when something still gets through. Review both every year, because the threats and the policy wordings both move.

The takeaway

• Cyber is the top threat for most Canadian businesses because it is frequent, automated, and costly.
• A cyber incident triggers the others: cash flow, supply chain, regulatory, reputation.
• Harder-target controls plus a right-sized cyber policy are what actually reduce the damage. Review both yearly.

By J.R. Genua, CCIS, Certified Cyber Insurance Specialist and Registered Insurance Broker. Insurance services provided by St. Andrews Insurance Brokers Ltd.