This story was delivered to BI Intelligence IoT Industry Insider subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here.

Hospitals are meant to be places of safety and security, but they have shown an unfortunate vulnerability recently.

According to Gizmodo, three separate hospitals in Los Angeles, Kentucky, and Ottawa have been victims of ransomware attacks, in which hackers use malware to encrypt files or systems and then force the victim to pay a ransom in order to decrypt the data and restore access.

Patient records at hospitals are of utmost importance, as doctors depend on them to make decisions about medications and surgeries. The loss of that data would hurt patients, so hackers know that hospitals are likely to pay the ransoms to get the information back.

Ransomware is one of the fastest growing types of cyber attacks because it's an easy way for hackers to make money. The L.A. hospital, for example, paid $17,000 in bitcoins to regain access to its systems.

Cybersecurity company Kaspersky Labs found that 337,205 computers infected with ransomware in the third quarter of 2015, up from 128,132 in the fourth quarter of 2015.

Hospitals are easy targets for hackers because of poor cybersecurity, according to Gizmodo. Kaspersky Labs found that researchers could access Internet-connected devices in hospitals without even entering a password. Independent Security Evaluators, meanwhile, found earlier this year that researchers could hack into hospitals just by leaving USB devices near computers and waiting for employees to plug them in.

Therefore, hospitals must increase their cybersecurity measures and train their employees to be on guard for potential threats.

Given this information, it's no surprise that companies are more worried than ever about the looming threat of hackers penetrating their networks. In the last year, the number of records exposed in data breaches rose 97%, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center.

The frequency and sophistication of cyber attacks are at an all-time high, and the costs associated with data breaches continue to rise. While companies are investing more in cybersecurity to ward off attacks, they know they won’t be able to spend their way to absolute security. A cybersecurity team of more than 1,000 staffers with a budget of $250 million wasn’t enough to save JPMorgan Chase from getting hacked in 2014. As a result, companies are turning to cyber insurance to help mitigate the costs of a potential breach.

However, insurers have been slow to extend cyber insurance to many businesses, as they have yet to develop proven tools to help them assess the risks and costs associated with cyber attacks. Cyber insurance policies also often have high premiums and low coverage limits to help protect insurers from incurring too much exposure to a cyber attack.

Jonathan Camhi, research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on cyber insurance that examines the growth of this market and identifies the key factors driving that growth. It also identifies the commercial sectors that are underserved in the cyber insurance market, which present a unique opportunity to insurers. Finally, it explains how insurers can find creative ways to cover these underserved markets while still limiting their overall exposure.

BI Intelligence

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

Cyber insurance plans cover a variety of costs related to cyber attacks, including revenue lost from downtime, notifying customers impacted by a data breach, and providing identity theft protection for such customers.

Annual cyber insurance premiums will more than double over the next four years, growing from to ~$8 billion in 2020.

However, many insurance companies have been hesitant to offer cyber insurance because of the high frequency of cyber attacks and their steep costs. For example, Target’s notorious data breach cost the company more than $260 million.

Insurers also don’t have enough historical data about cyber attacks to help them fully understand their risks and exposures.

There are large underserved markets with very low cyber insurance adoption rates such as the manufacturing sector, where less than 5% of businesses have cyber insurance coverage.

In full, the report:

Projects the growing demand and premiums for cyber insurance in comparison to other common forms of commercial insurance.

Illustrates how cyber attacks are growing more sophisticated and more costly, which is driving more companies to consider cyber insurance.

Explains the obstacles that insurers face in extending cyber insurance coverage to different types of businesses.

Provides insights on how insurers can overcome these challenges to grow their cyber insurance business without incurring too much risk.

To get your copy of this invaluable guide to cyber insurance, choose one of these options:

Purchase an ALL-ACCESS Membership that entitles you to immediate access to not only this report, but also dozens of other research reports, subscriptions to all 5 of the BI Intelligence daily newsletters, and much more. >> START A MEMBERSHIP Purchase the report and download it immediately from our research store. >> BUY THE REPORT

The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of cybersecurity.