European organisations are failing to understand the risk of cyber threats and implement strategies to deal with it effectively, according to a new survey from Marsh.
The 2013 Cyber Risk Survey was conducted at Marsh’s annual Digital Threat’s conference, which 85 risk managers from UK industries attended.
It showed risk managers’ concerns about cyber risk have increased in the last 12 months, with 71 percent of respondents indicating this to be the case, while 54 percent have recently seen a cyber attack mounted against their organisations.
Only 17 percent of risk managers accepted that the cost of a cyber attack could potentially amount to more than $5 million. Slightly for than a fifth said their organisations had not conducted dedicated cyber risk financial impact assessments.
On their organisations’ perceived existing cyber risk maturity level, 23 percent believed that management of cyber risk is fully embedded and optimised within their firms.
“The spectre of a cyber attack evidently looms large among the risks that risk managers believe could threaten the continued success of their organisations,” said Stephen Wares, cyber risk leader for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Marsh. “Despite this, it would seem that in the majority of firms, cyber risk is still largely misunderstood and many struggle to implement a clear strategy to tackle it effectively.”
