A new report, ‘Prepare for the expected: Safeguarding value in the era of cyber risk’ released today by Aon plc, the leading global professional services firm providing a broad range of risk, retirement and health solutions, has gathered views from cyber-focused leaders from businesses in EMEA to share lessons learned in building cyber resilient organisations.
According to research conducted by Cybersecurity Ventures, annual global cyber losses are expected to reach US$6 trillion by 2021, with cyber security spending set to exceed US$1 trillion cumulative in the five years period leading up to 2021. Businesses face financial loss in the form of immediate crisis expenses, regulatory fines, which have increased following the implementation of General Data Protection Regulation, and lost revenue resulting from an attack stopping the business from trading or disrupting core operations.
While the immediate financial costs of a cyber attack can be crippling for a business, the report suggests that of equal or even greater concern is damage to a business’s reputation. The reputational crisis resulting from an attack can erode a company’s market value, destroy brand loyalty, limit companies’ digital transformation efforts and even lead to a credit-rating downgrade. An effective cyber resilience strategy can help mitigate both immediate and long-term financial losses. A study conducted by Pentland Analytics and Aon found that a company’s preparedness to mitigate reputational risk and its management’s behaviour in the immediate aftermath of a crisis can have a notable impact on short and long-term share price reaction.
Onno Janssen, CEO, Risk Consulting & Cyber Solutions EMEA, Aon said: “Some companies still don’t fully understand the impact a cyber attack can have on a business. Understanding the worst-case scenarios and their impact to a business is crucial to developing an effective resilience strategy in which cyber is managed as an enterprise-wide risk across the entire organisation. The cyber threat is amorphous, and the technology it exploits is advancing at a dizzying pace, so the risk landscape is never going to stand still. The C-suite will have to aim to constantly improve its holistic cyber risk-management strategies to prevent, prepare for, and be able to respond to a cyber crisis. Ultimate responsibility for all risk management efforts resides in the boardroom.”
Aon’s report outlines four steps to building a cyber resilient organisation:
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