While business interruption repeatedly heads up the list of the greatest risks to businesses globally, newspaper headlines may be preventing leaders from identifying the causes to fear most.
In the great global pantheon of corporate risks, business interruption in all its many forms still ranks as the most prevalent and feared.
For its 2018 Risk Barometer report, global insurance firm Allianz sampled 1900 business respondents in 88 countries. While general business interrupters (including supply chain failures, natural disasters and factory fires) remain the top risks for companies worldwide (42 per cent of respondents), cyber risk (number two, with 40 per cent of respondents) is the most feared. Five years ago, it ranked just 15th.
Right now, cyber attacks are not just physical disrupters, they’re mental disrupters. Last year’s high-profile ransomware attacks, Petya, NotPetya and WannaCry, have left their mark on the collective corporate psyche. You can always build another factory and fix a broken email server, but the very idea of sensitive business data – as well as the entire footprint of a company’s…
