The financial loss of a successful major cyber-attack against a major service provider Cloud may be similar in scale to the economic impact of a catastrophic hurricane.
The catastrophic hurricane Katrina, which hit 2005 in the United States, causing damage of 108 billion dollars, could be overcome by the cost of a large cyber-attack, according to an expert.
"To compare the extent of the economic cost, estimates today say that if attackers take over a major Cloud service provider, the damages could be from $50 billion to $120 billion, which is about the size of a Sandy event or a Katrina, said the John Drzik, president of the insurance company companyof risk management Marsh, speaking at the launch of the World Economic Forum (World Economic Forum or WEF) for the global digital hazards 2018.
Analysis by the international body, which brings together business, politicians, academics and other leaders to shape the global agenda, ranks the attacks cyber in the top three risks to society, alongside natural disasters and extreme weather.
And, despite the fact that the 2017 is a record year for the economic costs of extreme weather and natural disasters, the financial loss of attacks in cyberspace has had a much greater global impact.
2017, the total cost of cyber attacks was much higher than the cost of natural disasters, according to ZDNet.
"The total cost of cyber damage is currently estimated at more than $ 1 trillion a year, compared to about $ 300 billion lost in natural disasters in 2017," Drzik said.
However, despite the potential damage that can be caused by cyber attacks, governments and support services are much less and less well equipped to deal with a major cyber incident than services facing natural disasters.
"Think about the synreview scale," said Drzik. “Think of government agencies as well as voluntary organizations that focus on natural disaster response, with national government organizations having much less pconditions, and some capacity, but not enough to deal with a significantly increasing risk.”
There is also an additional issue:
Like extreme weather disasters, cloud attacks are a global issue but, as the WEF report highlights, there are elements of today's geopolitical environment that create huge barriers to nations coming together to cooperate in protection against hacks and breaches.
This is dangerous, since there are almost none real agreement on what is acceptable and what needs to be managed in better safety of cyberspace.
"International protocols have not yet really emerged in dealing with cyber-risk, something that is needed. "However, in the geopolitical climate we are in, it is difficult to reach multilateral agreements," he said.
"All of this is a difficult picture for cyber defense."
