Beyond Data Breaches: Global Interconnections of Cyber Risk

The Atlantic Council and Zurich Insurance Group (Zurich) have released a pioneering report, Beyond Data Breaches: Global Interconnections of Cyber Risk, to better prepare governments and businesses for the cyber shocks of the future.
 
Through a combination of stable technology, dedicated technicians and, resistance to random outages, the Internet has been resilient to attacks on a day-to-day basis, creating an extended period of prosperity. Yet, as we approach nearly absolute dependence on the Internet, cyber attacks of the future can and will affect globally interconnected systems like electrical grids and worldwide logistics systems. This Internet of tomorrow will be a source of global shocks for which risk managers, corporate executives, board directors, and government officials are not prepared.

pdfDownload the Excutive Summary

pdfDownload the Report

This groundbreaking report, commissioned by Zurich and written by the Atlantic Council’s Jason Healey, outlines several concrete steps that must be taken to overcome these inevitable shocks of the future and prevent what could be called a “cyber sub-prime” meltdown.
 
Recommendations to be resilient to cyber shocks include:

  • Putting the private sector at the center of crisis management, since government management of cyber risk lacks the agility needed
  • Developing plans within organizations that have system-wide responsibility that ensure the stability of the system as a whole, rather than risks to an individual organization
  • Creating redundant power and telecommunications suppliers and alternate ISPs connect to different peering points
  • Investing in trained teams ready to respond with defined procedures
  • Conducting simulations of the most likely and most dangerous cyber risks to better prepare

Related Experts: Jason Healey