Cyber risk appears in many forms, all of which can represent major threats to business. Companies increasingly face new exposures, including first and third-party damage, business interruption and regulatory consequences.

It is estimated that cyber-crime alone costs the global economy approximately $445bn a year with the world’s largest economies accounting for around half of this, as per AGCS report A Guide to Cyber Risk: Managing The Impact of Increasing Interconnectivity shows.

This increasing risk is reflected in the Risk Barometer with cyber incidents (cyber-crime, data breaches, IT failures) gaining 1% points year-on year to move into the top three risks.

Studies show that it takes, on average, 90 days for businesses to discover they have been hacked. Often the incident is identified, not by the business itself, but by the customer or another stakeholder, which is another reason why cyber risks pose a huge threat to a company’s reputation.

Manage cyber risk before it’s too late!

There is no “silver bullet” solution for cyber security. Businesses need to identify key assets at risk and weaknesses such as the “human factor” or overreliance on third parties. Employees can cause large IT security or loss of privacy events, either inadvertently or deliberately.

Therefore, cyber risk has to be an integral part of any company’s risk management strategy with a cyber-security culture and a “think-tank” approach to tackling risk.

Implementing an effective governance structure, maintain board engagement and produce appropriate information security policies which should include: User education and awareness, training, monitoring policies and procedures for all networks and systems Incident management procedures.

Talk to a professional at Anglo African Consulting Ltd on +230 233 16 36 for your business cyber security concerns.

Source: agcs.allianz.com