Middle East a soft target for cyber extortion - New Dawn Risk

The coming year will bring significant growth in cyber extortion, with the Middle East a particular focus of activity, according to broker New Dawn Risk’s predictions for the Cyber markets in 2020.

“Criminal gangs will shift their focus away from private individuals and onto businesses where they can hope for a greater return on their investment,” said James Bullock-Webster, head of technology, media and cyber at New Dawn Risk. “The Middle East is a soft target; lots of wealth and a tendency not to want to lose face means ransoms will be paid and not talked about. IT budgets may have been neglected and there is a paucity of experienced breach responders in the region. This is a ticking time bomb.”

In order to be prepared for this type of event, he recommended: “Harden your systems, train your people, be resilient, have a plan, test that plan and partner with organisations that know what to do in the face of a debilitating cyber event.”

New Dawn Risk has also predicted that in 2020 cyber cat loss will hit the market.

“Apparently, it will never happen - cloud service providers can’t be hacked, and operating system providers are impenetrable,” said Bullock-Webster. “Those folks seem to have forgotten what happened in 1912, when RMS Titanic, the unsinkable ship – sunk. One report suggests that a large-scale data loss from cloud services provider could cost $22.2 billion.

“An event of this scale will reduce capacity, push reinsurance rates up and kill off one-third of existing cyber carriers, while another third will voluntarily withdraw. The bottom line is that rates are going to go up and coverage will be restricted.”

Offering advice on how to mitigate the risk, he said:

“Don’t be reliant on any one service provider, understand the impact of contingent business interruption and plan for the doomsday scenarios. If it doesn’t happen, all the better but if it does, then at least you might be able to survive longer than your competitors.”

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