Most companies acknowledge that the question is no longer “if” a cyber attack will happen but rather “when” it will happen.

Targeted attacks continue to plague businesses, regardless of size or industry. According to the “2015 Travelers Business Risk Index,” cyber risks are the second greatest concern overall for businesses.

An April 2016 Symantec study revealed that the total number of identities exposed because of breaches jumped 23 percent to 429 million in 2015, a number suspected to be much higher because many organizations don't release information about the extent of the breaches they suffer.

The number of breaches reported that did not include a figure for identities exposed increased by 85 percent, from 61 in 2013 to 113 in 2015. Symantec estimates, had these breaches been fully reported, the total number of identities exposed is likely to be at least half a billion.

These breaches cost businesses millions of dollars each year. In 2016, the average cost of a data breach grew to $7.01 million, up from $6.53 million in 2015, according to a June 2016 study by the Ponemon Institute.

Tim Francis, vice president and enterprise cyber lead at Travelers Cos. Inc., said hacking is big business, adding that “although cyber breaches have become commonplace for businesses of all sizes, more can be done to raise awareness of cyber risks and the ways to mitigate them.”

In response to the increase in cyber threats to businesses, the company has started Travelers Cyber Academy for agents and brokers. This web-based training program addresses cybersecurity risks and mitigation for businesses, and features insurance professionals, cyber experts, former FBI agents and “white hat” hackers who will provide cyber risk mitigation lessons for businesses.

“The Travelers Cyber Academy is one way we can provide additional resources for agents and brokers to help their clients protect against one of the biggest problems companies face today,” said Francis. “I think if we understand the basics of cyber, and most of our agents do, there's an understanding that data that gets compromised from our customers often ends up on the dark web where it's bought and sold.”

The program will cover a wide array of cyber topics, including the dark web, cyber extortion, chip cards and the Internet of Things, with an intended goal of arming agents and brokers with resources to help their clients protect their businesses against cyber breaches, as well as what to do in the event of a data breach.

“It is the next evolution in a series of initiatives that we've undertaken at Travelers to create more awareness around cyber, generally, and particularly around educating both our agents and brokers and our customers in terms of the threat environment and the different options that they may have for reducing the threats that they face,” Francis told PropertyCasualty360.

The Travelers Cyber Academy, which consists of eight classes, held once a month (excluding December), began on Sept. 20 and runs through May 2017. Each webinar, approximately 20 minutes long, will cover a different topic, discussing what it is, why it's important to customers and how it might affect different customers in different ways, as well as how the insurance product can help offset some of those risks.

Travelers said it hopes the program, which is optional and now open for enrollment to agents and brokers, will also create a platform for participating agents and brokers to explore these issues more — beyond what is presented in the program — on their own.

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