Fraudsters target professional services firms

Fraudulent instruction as a form of cyber attack is on the rise according to Beazley’s latest Cyber Services Snapshot report.

The data reveals that professional service firms experienced more fraudulent instruction and almost as many business email compromise incidents so far in 2022 as in the whole of 2021.

Claims caused by fraudulent instruction are on the rise this year despite an overall decline in incidents.

In contrast, system infiltration overall is down in 2022, due to a combination of factors including better risk selection, improved security practices, and threat actor attention being focused elsewhere.

Good asset management is good governance

This “breather” gives organisations time to get their arms around their cyber assets before there is a resurgence in attacks, according to the report. Firms must be alert to the ways that gaps in inventory can slow down detection and response capabilities, both on-premises and in the cloud, it explains.

“The past two years of pandemic-driven remote work have led to decreased inter-departmental communication and less oversight overall, making the likelihood that an organisation has an incomplete asset inventory greater than ever,” said Bala Larson, Beazley’s head of Client Experience. 

“Good asset management is good governance, and as such, it needs to be built into business decision-making. Organisations that fail to do so inherently expose themselves to cyber breaches that result in higher costs and more liability.”

In addition to insights from professionals on the front line of Beazley’s incident response teams, the report features data gathered between 2020 and Q3 of 2022, including cause of loss by industry, ransomware vectors, business email compromise, and data exfiltration.

These data points provide a real-time view into incidents reported to Beazley, revealing an ongoing picture of emerging cyber risk.