Whitepaper: Covid-19 - Implications for cyber risk

While humanitarian and economic concerns are rightfully taking centre stage with the proliferation and uncertain containment of the Covid-19 global pandemic, the financial and insurance sectors should nonetheless be aware of the cyber risk spill over. The bad news is that we can reasonably expect corporate cyber risk exposure to mirror the generalised, global spread of Covid-19 across many sectors in regions where the virus has been transmitted.

This is because most businesses in affected areas are migrating to telework and remote labour operations, thereby increasing the opportunities (the number of potentially vulnerable targets to exploit) for cyber adversaries. Similar to how the aftermath of natural disasters breeds scammers and fraudsters, the Covid-19 crisis promises to attract opportunistic cyber criminals.

Despite the uncertainty of the infection rate and the absence of vaccines, the good news is that the anticipated threats and vulnerabilities are largely knowable, preventable, and defensible. There remains an open question, however, as to whether this altered cyber risk environment will be temporary or will mark an inflection point toward a new norm for corporate cyber exposures.

In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, this document provides:
• A concise preview of the main cyber risk factors that organisations should consider.
• Recommendations for reducing exposure.
• A sampling of the analytic capabilities that Guidewire Cyence products provide to quantify organisational and aggregated cyber risk and impact.