Cyberattacks seen as biggest risk to businesses worldwide

A new survey by AGCS found that criminal hackers ranked as the biggest risk to companies. — AFP Relaxnews

Business executives and security experts around the world see cyberattacks as the greatest danger for companies, according to a global survey.

In a “Risk Barometer” published on Tuesday by AGCS, an industrial insurer belonging to insurance giant Allianz, criminal hackers ranked as the biggest risk.

Business interruptions, natural disasters and pandemics follow in places two to four, AGCS said.

The company surveyed a total of 2,650 professionals in 89 countries last autumn.

This included more than 1,200 executives from large companies with annual sales worth more than US$500mil (RM2.08bil), including Allianz’s own experts.

Even very good information technology (IT) security precautions do not protect one hundred per cent against hacker attacks, the company learned.

“Companies invest a lot of money in the further development of IT security, but we are still finding that attackers can get through and sometimes cause enormous damage to companies,” AGCS manager Jens Krickhahn said.

The Allianz survey is consistent with other analyses of cybercrime.

US company Cybersecurity Ventures, which is frequently cited in the IT industry, estimates that the global damage caused by cybercrime reached US$6 trillion (RM25.07 trillion) last year.

By 2025, this could increase to US$10.5 trillion (RM43.87 trillion). That sum includes data theft and destruction, financial crime, lost productivity, intellectual property theft and other crimes, as well as the cost of repairing the damage.

According to Germany-based power firm Eon, the energy sector is increasingly at risk.

“The danger of cyberattacks on the system will increase,” Eon chief executive Leonhard Birnbaum said at the Handelsblatt energy summit in Berlin on Tuesday.

He is following the topic “with great concern”, he said. – dpa