While the form of cyber attack a business or organization is likely to suffer depends mostly on the work of that enterprise, the evidence is pretty clear that the most menacing attacks—ransomware and distributed denials of service—are here already. That means the steps carriers would be taking a year from now are the steps we should be taking immediately. For those of us in the industry who are serious about offering cyber coverage, next year starts today.

That said, I would be lying if I didn’t admit to the existence of a new cyber threat. The threat doesn’t have to do with some radical advance in technology but rather with rate, impact and range. Cyber attacks are increasingly frequent, harmful and widespread. While some purveyors of ransomware deploy viruses that identify and lock up the most sensitive data in a system, most hackers aren’t necessarily relying on vastly new methods. The biggest threat lies in the fact that hackers are finding rich new hunting grounds and have begun to prowl them.