When minutes matter: What a cyber claim taught me about response By: Brendan Leon, cyber specialist In Canada’s cyber environment, I’ve learned the first hours of a claim shape the outcome. A cyber file moves with the urgency of a major property fire loss: logs roll over, devices get rebuilt, and well‑intentioned remediation can wipe the evidence needed to confirm the entry point, the scope, and even coverage.
Under pressure, teams often “fix first and document later,” but cyber rarely rewards that order. By the time a loss is reported, regulatory timelines may already be running, and key decisions may already be made.
The numbers make the urgency real. The average cost of a data breach in Canada reached $6.98 million in 2025, and 86.5% of Canadian organizations reported a cybersecurity incident in 2024. Small businesses are heavily exposed: 73% have already experienced an incident, yet many still don’t feel ready.
In claims, that reality shows up as downtime, third‑party experts, legal guidance, customer communications, and the internal lift to keep operating. Business email compromise and ransomware are common, and losses escalate quickly when operations stall and the response splinters.
Canada adds complexity. There’s no single privacy framework, and one incident can trigger obligations under federal and provincial regimes with different thresholds and timelines. Cross‑border vendors and cloud providers can complicate evidence handling, system access, and legal coordination. That’s why I push disciplined triage right away: preserve what matters, establish clear authority, and decide who can approve containment steps and communications. I also want legal, forensics, communications, and finance/operations aligned early so we work from one set of facts.
What I value most is a steady, claims‑led approach: keep the response moving while maintaining insurer visibility on coverage, reserves, and strategy. Cyber claims reward readiness over perfection, and speed only helps when it’s deliberate. The first 48 hours are rarely clean, but when roles are clear and decisions are made with urgency and intent, the claim shifts from scramble to coordinated response. That coordination contains loss and helps organizations move from incident to recovery with trust intact, when customers, employees, and regulators are watching most closely.
