Zurich Insurance's annual Advisen Cyber survey showed that, for the first time in the survey's seven-year history, there has been a significant decline in how seriously C-suites and business executives view cyber risk, even as the nature of cyber attacks and risks have evolved.

The report highlights three key findings:

• In 2017, 60% of the risk professionals surveyed said executive management view cyberrisk as a significant threat to their organization, down significantly from 85% in 2016.
• Only 53% of respondents knew of any changes to their companies' cybersecurity systems in response to the high-profile attacks that took place in early 2017.
• Growth in the purchase of cyber insurance has gone stagnant after a steady increase from 35% to 65% over the past six years.

"These findings may indicate that businesses are not up to speed on the magnitude of impact that business interruption losses are beginning to have on businesses," said Erica Davis, head of specialty E&O for Zurich North America.

"Annually, the survey results are critical for understanding how businesses are thinking about cyber risk and what we need to do to help them protect themselves as we watch this issue continue to evolve," Davis said.