According to Hiscox’s Third Cyber Readiness Report, which surveyed 5,400 firms in the U.S. and the E.U., cyber threats have “become the unavoidable cost of doing business today.” The Report notes that for the first time, “a significant majority of firms surveyed said they experienced one or more cyber-attacks in the last 12 months. Both the cost and frequency of attacks have increased markedly compared with a year ago, and where hackers formerly focused mainly on larger companies, small-and-medium sized firms are now equally vulnerable.” The number of firms that reported cyber incidents rose from 45 percent in 2018 to 61 percent in 2019.