We are living in geopolitically volatile times, and the international system is under profound strain from multiple directions. Institutions, assumptions and patterns of action that have previously been taken for granted are now being called into question by many. So says a report by the World Economic Forum. The WEF’s insight report on “Regional Risks for Doing Business 2018”, by region, found that in Europe, “cyber-attacks” emerged as the leading risk to doing business, largely as a result of its prominence in many of the region’s most advanced economies. In total, this risk ranked number one in 12 countries.
As the report pointed out, Europe was affected by a series of major attacks in 2017 – for example, the WannaCry ransomware attack badly disrupted the UK’s health system and Germany’s rail system – and and estimates suggest that the number of cyber-attacks across the region increased by around a third in the first quarter of 2018, compared to the same period last year.
Cyber-attacks came first in Germany and the UK, but in France and Italy, domestic economic and financial conditions were of greater concern. French respondents cited “unemployment and underemployment” as the number one risk to doing business in the country. For the full report visit the WEF website.
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Mick Bradley, EMEA VP at Arcserve found it no surprise. “As we become more digitally connected, organisations are spending an increasing amount on cybersecurity software. But despite this, we are still witnessing an increase in hacks, outages and data breaches.
“Our research has shown that the cost of downtime when cyber-attacks or outages happen is also a growing concern. Tolerance for data loss is also diminishing – 93% said their companies could only tolerate minimal, if any, data loss from their critical business applications yet just 26% feel extremely confident in their ability to recover quickly enough to avoid business disruption/loss of revenue. Despite this, more than half (56%) of organisations don’t have a recovery plan in place and nearly 70% of executives believe that cyber-attacks are a data security issue rather than recovery. However, it’s virtually impossible to completely eliminate security risks or weaknesses in systems despite how much is invested into security solutions, so executives need to also focus on recovery and resiliency in the fight against cyber criminals, to maintain business continuity when things inevitably go wrong.”
Lisa Baergen, director at NuData Security described the study as somewhat bittersweet. She said: “While it’s a concern that cyberattacks are common and dangerous enough to top business leaders’ list of concerns, it’s undoubtedly a step in the right direction that his is at least being acknowledged. This means however that business leaders can no longer plead ignorance; They need to take appropriate measures to move beyond the traditional models of cybersecurity protection and account access if they hope to keep their businesses and customers safe.”
Pete Banham at Mimecast said: “The World Economic Forum’s ‘Globalisation 4.0’ agenda is at risk without new investments into cybersecurity. The WannaCry ransomware attack was a clear wake-up call for organizations and governments around the world of the new cybersecurity risks to wellbeing and productivity. New cyber threats will continue to adapt to take advantage of weaknesses in systems and procedures, especially as global cloud computing vendors aggregate IT risks. Data and technology-rich economies need to be better prepared with appropriate risk mitigation techniques in place. Business continuity and cybersecurity are together now major boardroom issues. The only way to mitigate these new risks is to adopt a strategy of cyber resilience that brings together threat protection, durability and recoverability.”
