– Cyber war is increasing threat – Investors are not prepared for
– Third most likely global risk in 2018 is cyber war say WEF
– “Scale and sophistication of attacks is going to grow”
– EU, US, NATO lay down ground rules for offensive cyber war
– Ireland is viable target for attackers but is ‘grossly unprepared for cyber war’
– UK should expect attack that cripples infrastructure within 2 years
– Trump administration may use nuclear weapons in response to cyber attacks
– Cyber war designed to have a economic impact on countries
– Invest in physical assets as well as digital assets & currencies
– Avoid ETF and digital gold and own physical gold that is allocated and segregated
Editor: Mark O’Byrne
Cyber-attacks are the third most likely global risk for 2018, behind extreme weather conditions and natural disasters, according to a new report by the World Economic Forum.
Estimated to cost over $1 trillion per year, cyber-attacks are now more expensive than natural disasters which in 2017 brought in a bill of $300 billion.
“We are still under resourced in the amount of effort put into trying to mitigate this risk…Cyber is at or above the scale of natural catastrophes [in terms of financial damage caused] and yet the comparative infrastructure is much smaller in scale,” according to John Drzik of WEF report partner Marsh.
The World Economic Forum’s Margareta Drzeniek-Hanouz, head of economic progress, told a press conference that cyber-risks are affecting society and the economy in “new, broader ways.”
They now impact not just the corporate sector as we usually assume but also government infrastructures and the geopolitical sphere. Arguably we are also seeing them shape societies.
The report’s launch comes at a time when cyber-attack warnings are coming in thick and fast. Governments have been warned this week that they are grossly underprepared for an attack which could see politics taken out of the electorate’s hands, billions wiped from financial markets and chaos generally created between otherwise peaceful nations.
The average citizen and investor is only vaguely aware of these risks and has yet to “join the dots” and realise the real risks they pose to economies, financial markets and people’s online savings and investments.
This is becoming urgent and yet complacency is common place with financial media focus on soaring stock markets and parabolic crypto currencies.
Governments, financial service providers, banks, brokerages are all grossly underprepared for a cyber-attack which means that your assets are vulnerable.
Governments unprepared
This week at the incredibly ‘in-touch’ event that is Davos a public-private platform in the form of a Global Centre for Cybersecurity will be launched.
“Cyber-risk is rapidly emerging as a major headache in boardrooms of all sorts of institutions around the world,” Marsh’s John Drzik told the recent press conference. The new center for cybersecurity will, (launched with Interpol) be a “framework in which there will be a better opportunity for leaders of institutions across the public and private sectors to pool information on their intelligence and response capabilities to get ahead of the curve on a number of these risks.”
Hopefully this is not a case of too little too late.
Throughout the world, including in the United Kingdom and Ireland, experts have been very vocal about the dangers that face entire nations.
CEO of Ward Solutions, Pat Larkin has told the Irish government that they need to ‘wake-up’ to the risks facing the country’s cyber systems as they are totally under prepared for what may come.
The country is completely unprepared for the “doomsday scenario” that was seen in Estonia, in 2007, Larkin warned via the Sun.ie in the first week of this year.
Intermittent but continuous power outages, attacks on the financial infrastructure, the transport and water infrastructure – to the point where it is significantly impacting the commercial and social activities of the citizens and damages the country’s brand internationally and its economy – would be the worst case scenario.
In a warning that is relevant to all technologically advanced and vulnerable nations, Larkin said:
“A continuous drip-feed of cyber attacks would lead to very unstable environment – a targeted attack like that on Ireland could wreak havoc on the country.
It would have a major impact on everyday life for citizens and businesses.
But it would also be catastrophic for the country’s foreign direct investment.
Major companies come to Ireland to invest for a number of reasons – the talent, tax environment – but they also come here because Ireland is a very politically stable country with good infrastructure and good services.
This is the major challenge for Ireland. Given that we are not well prepared or protected, if someone really did decide to target us they could inflict continuous long-term damage.”
Meanwhile in the UK, Ciaran Martin, head of the country’s National Cyber Security Centre, has told the