Lloyds of London and Aon have today released a report suggesting that a coordinated global cyber attack, spread through malicious email, could cause economic damages anywhere between $85 billion and $193bn.
A global #ransomware #cyber-attack could cost businesses $193bn, affect >600,000 businesses and 30 million devices within 24 hours according to the #BasheAttack report from the Cyber Risk Management (#CyRiM) project, of which we’re a member. To read more: https://t.co/nz4X4YjEYV pic.twitter.com/1BcLOoDIxT
— Lloyd's (@LloydsofLondon) January 29, 2019
Expert Comments below:
Ed Macnair, CEO at CensorNet:
“There’s no doubt that the cost of cyber-attacks is going up and that, should an event like this occur it would be devastating, but this seems like the very worst-case scenario. This research has been based on a phishing attack and the kind of spread they are talking about would be prevented if just a couple of companies had email security in place. The chances are many more than that do. Of course, phishing attacks are getting smarter and can catch out even the savviest, but modern security tools can also prevent such a rapid propagation of infection.
“Security tools have got much smarter over the last few years with more and more integration, and could, in theory, be picked up by an email security tool and blocked from being sent on, then email security speaks to a web security tool, and malicious links are blocked from opening in web clients. Cyber insurance is a good idea to have, but without preventative tools in place it’s the same as insuring your home contents and leaving the door unlocked. It’s there as a back-up and, if you do everything right, shouldn’t be needed.”
