Cyberattacks have more than doubled since the pandemic.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says the financial sector has suffered more than 20,000 attacks in the last two decades, at a cost valued at $12 billion.
While companies have historically suffered relatively modest direct losses from cyberattacks, the fund stated that some have experienced a much heavier toll citing US credit reporting agency Equifax, as an example, it paid more than $1 billion in penalties after a major data breach in 2017 that affected about 150 million consumers.
These findings are contained in the April 2024 Global Financial Stability Report (GFSR) where the fourth chapter showed increasing risk of extreme losses from cyber incidents that could potentially cause funding problems for companies and even jeopardize their solvency. The size of these extreme losses has more than quadrupled since 2017 to $2.5 billion. And indirect losses like reputational damage or security upgrades are substantially higher.
The financial sector is uniquely exposed to cyber risk. Financial firms—given the large amounts of sensitive data and transactions they handle—are often targeted by criminals seeking to steal money or disrupt economic activity. Attacks on financial firms account for nearly one-fifth of the total, of which banks are the most exposed.
Cyber incidents that disrupt critical services like payment networks the IMF say could also severely affect economic activity.
Good production costs money and you can support what we do. Please find our details below👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾 Account name: MARKET ONLINE MEDIA Bank: UBA Acc No: 1026401930.
