Lately Cyber Insurance and risk management have been getting a lot of attention—and rightly so, given the big-name breaches at Target, Home Depot and JP Morgan Chase. Most articles dealing with cyber breaches focus on pre-loss precautions, such as incident preparedness and improved information security. Other articles center on Cyber Insurance policies which offer some financial cushion to cover the loss and post-loss services and assistance. What is lost in these discussions is a paradigm shift that has occurred in the marketplace which exacerbates all breach and privacy concerns.

In the past, companies sold things: dishwashers, running shoes, underwear, automobiles, everything we live with every day. Today, these items have become nearly secondary in value. Without trying to sound Orwellian, the real commodity in the marketplace is now you: your personal preferences, idiosyncrasies, habits and beliefs.

Billions of dollars are spent each year to track and predict your buying habits. The science behind this is getting so refined that the aggregators of this information, with highly sophisticated mathematics, can tell what you will likely want to buy even before you know you want it. Ever searched for something on-line, like hiking boots, then have those hiking boots or similar ones follow you around the Internet for the next month? Those shoes also bring along with them other things like hiking socks, walking sticks, and binoculars. This phenomenon is the result of the aggregation, manipulation and sale of information about you.