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Cyber Incidents Bigger Business Risk than Climate Change – Tech.co


Cybersecurity risks are the highest priority for businesses around the globe in 2020, according to an extensive new survey. By comparison, climate change clocked in at seventh as the biggest perceived business risk worldwide.

Granted, that’s still climate change’s highest ever ranking, and a sign that it’s moving up in importance as the effects of humanity’s impact on Earth’s climate become increasingly extreme.

The findings, along with further insights into top business risks, come from the Allianz Risk Barometer 2020. The research draws upon a survey of more than 2,700 experts, spanning 100 countries. Here’s the relevant information to know, as well as all the other top cyber risks that businesses will face in the very near future.

Cyber Threats to Business

This is the ninth annual survey of business risks from Allianz, and this year marks the first time that cyber incidents hit the number one spot across the world. The risk of digital threats garnered a mention from a full 39% of all responders, the Allianz report notes. That says a lot about the rapid rise of awareness around the issue, driven by a never-ending stream of high-profile losses due to hacks, leaks, or other vulnerabilities.

Cyber risks can affect any business, from small startups to global behemoths like Amazon. Just this week, it was revealed that Amazon boss Jeff Bezos was subject to an alleged data hack.

The biggest concern for huge operations is a massive data breach, and the risk is getting larger with each passing year. The biggest breaches (those involving over one million compromised records) now cost businesses an average of $42 million, a number up 8% since the same time last year.

Check out Tech.co’s list of expert security predictions for 2020

The cyber threats themselves come in many forms. Phishing attempts are a big one, in which a fraudulent email or phone call attempts to bait employees into sharing personal account information.

With a denial-of-service attack, a hacker or hacking group might flood a system with information requests in order to intentionally make it unusable. Given the rise of state-sponsored attacks, this option might be an increasingly large concern.

Finally, there’s ransomware, a type of malware that, once downloaded, locks all access to a system’s data unless the hacker is paid a ransom. Hackers have seen plenty of success with this. One small Florida town paid $600,000 just last year to get back access to its city records.

Here’s an infographic summary of the main points revealed in the new report – you can click it to expand for a better view.



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