Australia: Cyber incidents return as biggest worry for businesses
Source: Asia Insurance Review | Sep 2024
Cyber incidents such as ransomware attacks, data breaches and IT disruptions are the biggest worry for companies in Australia in 2024, according to the Allianz Risk Barometer 2024, the 13th edition to date. Cyber risk dislodges natural catastrophe risks as the topmost risk in the country.
The proportion of businesses that ranked this risk increases to 52% in this year’s report compared to the 2023 Barometer. Cyber was ranked joint No. 1 risk with business interruption in 2022.
Most of the risks listed among the top 10 in the 2023 Barometer were given less weight this year, with two of them — pandemic outbreak (ranked eighth in 2023) and energy crisis (ranked ninth) — falling out of the list this year.
Risks that increased in weightage this year are cyber incidents (ranking No.1) and changes in legislation and regulation (ranking No. 5). Two new risks emerged this year, namely, fire and explosion and new technologies. A