When cyber and D&O insurance premiums soared, businesses may have felt it necessary to reduce coverage. Now, rates have declined, so it may be a good time to “top off” your cyber and D&O limits – especially because, unlike premiums, risks are not falling. Cyber and D&O Premium Trends Both cyber and D&O insurance have seen substantial swings in recent years. Cyber insurance premiums skyrocketed between 2020 and 2022. According to CIAB, rates were up 34.3% in the fourth quarter of 2021. After that, rate hikes began to moderate, although double-digit increases were still the norm for a while. By the second half of 2023, rate hikes were only up 3.6%. In the second quarter of 2024, CIAB says rates were actually down 1.7%. D&O insurance has shown a similar pattern. Rate increases started to climb around 2019 and 2020. CIAB says D&O insurance rates were up 16.8% in the second quarter of 2020 and 16.1% in the third quarter. However, the hard market di

Small businesses are increasingly becoming the target of cyber-attacks; 71% of such incidents involve organizations with fewer than 100 employees. With each attack costing an average $500,000 to fix, it’s an expensive price to pay for being unprotected against cyber threats. More and more businesses are finding out the hard way just how important cyber security is; at Brandt Insurance & Financial, we have the products in place to protect your business in the event you fall victim to an online attack. As the threats become more advanced, the more far-reaching your security coverage needs to be. If you want to make sure your small business is protected, follow our five steps to improving your cyber security and safeguarding your livelihood. Eliminate unnecessary data Many cyber-attacks are orchestrated with the goal of stealing sensitive information, either about your company or your customers. To reduce the risk to your business and your clients, permanently eliminate any u

ZURICH, September 4, 2024 – Amcor (NYSE: AMCR; ASX: AMC), a global leader in developing and producing responsible packaging solutions, today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Peter Konieczny as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Mr. Konieczny has served as Interim CEO since April 2024. The Board also intends to nominate him as a director for election at the Company’s Annual Meeting of Shareholders which is expected to be held in November 2024. Amcor Chairman, Mr. Graeme Liebelt, said, “Peter has demonstrated exceptional leadership in every role he has held during his career at Amcor, including as Interim CEO where he has led the Company through a period of strengthening financial performance and set the business up for further progress. The Board and I are confident Peter is the right person to lead Amcor, and we look forward to working with him to build on the strong foundation the Company has established over many years.” Mr. Konieczny said, &ld

As more of America’s workers were asked to work from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, cyber criminals jumped at the opportunity to take advantage, it seems. Remote work means work being handled on the cloud as employees share files and need a convenient way to access them. But cyber criminals are banking on workers letting down their guards when they work from home, so it’s no surprise that while cloud service usage among enterprises jumped 50% between January and April, external attacks on cloud accounts boomed 630% in the same period. Also, hackers and other cyber scammers orchestrated systematic attacks on collaboration tools like Cisco WebEx, Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Slack, according to the “Cloud Adoption & Risk Report – Work from Home Edition” report by McAfee. The risk to enterprises cannot be overstated as criminals try to take advantage of the sudden shift to telecommuting by thousands and thousands of organizations as they try to cope wit

Small and mid-sized businesses are increasingly bearing the burden of cyber threats, as criminals consider them low-hanging fruits that often do not have the resources in place to mount a strong defense. A severe attack on a small company can incapacitate its ability to do business, and the expenses of getting operations back on track ― coupled with loss of goodwill ― can easily force many firms into bankruptcy. That’s why it’s important to not only have safeguards in place to avoid being compromised in the first place, but to also take out the proper insurance. Unfortunately, with more data breaches hitting the news, one of the main concerns that executives have is if their insurance will cover the costs associated with recovering from an attack. Many business owners and executives worry whether the policies they have in place will be adequate in case they are hit by a breach. If you are running a small or mid-sized company, do not underestimate the growing threat to y