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{"id":8609,"date":"2022-06-24T14:40:32","date_gmt":"2022-06-24T14:40:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/06\/24\/businesses-risk-catastrophic-financial-loss-from-cyberattacks-us-watchdog-warns\/"},"modified":"2022-06-24T14:40:33","modified_gmt":"2022-06-24T14:40:33","slug":"businesses-risk-catastrophic-financial-loss-from-cyberattacks-us-watchdog-warns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/06\/24\/businesses-risk-catastrophic-financial-loss-from-cyberattacks-us-watchdog-warns\/","title":{"rendered":"Businesses risk \u2018catastrophic financial loss\u2019 from cyberattacks, US watchdog warns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/6\/23\/23180115\/gao-infrastructure-catastrophic-financial-loss-cyberattacks-insurance<\/a>
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A government watchdog has warned that private insurance companies are increasingly backing out of covering damages from major cyberattacks \u2014 leaving American businesses facing \u201ccatastrophic financial loss\u201d unless another insurance model can be found.<\/p>\n

The growing challenge of covering cyber risk is outlined in a new report<\/a> from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which calls for a government assessment of whether a federal cyber insurance option is needed.<\/p>\n

The report draws on threat assessments from the National Security Agency (NSA), Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and Department of Justice to quantify the risk of cyberattacks on critical infrastructure, identifying vulnerable technologies that might be attacked and a range of threat actors capable of exploiting them.<\/p>\n

Citing an annual threat assessment<\/a> released by the ODNI, the report finds that hacking groups linked to Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea pose the greatest threat to US infrastructure \u2014 along with certain non-state actors like organized cybercriminal gangs.<\/p>\n

Given the wide and increasingly skilled range of actors willing to target US entities, the number of cyber incidents is rising at an alarming rate.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough federal agencies do not have a comprehensive inventory of cybersecurity incidents,\u201d the report reads, \u201cseveral key federal and industry sources show (1) an increase in most types of cyberattacks across the United States\u2014 including those affecting critical infrastructure, and (2) significant and increasing costs for cyberattacks.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2016, US businesses and public bodies were hit with a total of 19,060 incidents in the four major categories \u2014 ransomware, data breaches, business email compromise, and denial of service attacks \u2014 with a total cost of $470 million, per a GAO analysis of FBI reports. In 2021, there were 26,074 incidents, and the total cost was close to $2.6 billion.<\/p>\n

The report also cites specific incidents that have had a spillover effect on the wider economy, notably the cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline<\/a> that took a 5,500-mile-long fuel transporting operation offline. In that attack, the pipeline operator paid a ransom of $4.4 million<\/a> to the hackers \u2014 despite advice from law enforcement agencies that ransom demands should always be rejected.<\/p>\n

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