MUNICH (dpa-AFX) - Criminal hackers, natural disasters, political risks and climate change are causing growing concern for companies worldwide. In the annual risk barometer of Allianz, cyberattacks are still the top business risk, followed by business interruption, natural catastrophes, and changes in legal and regulatory requirements.
Allianz Commercial, the corporate insurer belonging to the Munich Dax group, surveyed a total of 3,778 managers, security experts, brokers and also some of its own employees in 106 countries.
Concerns are growing
Last year, 36 percent of the managers and security experts surveyed feared hacker attacks, while this time the figure was 38 percent. Closely related to this is the second-place threat of business interruption caused by cyber attacks, which, as in the previous year, worries 31 percent of the participants.
Concern about natural disasters rose by three percentage points to 29 percent. Allianz believes that this reflects the increasing damage caused by natural disasters.
Business risk: politics and authorities
The change is particularly evident when it comes to the topic of regulation – which includes customs duties and protectionism, for example, but also environmental regulations. A year ago, 19 percent saw this as a major business risk, but this time the figure was 25 percent. Climate change has moved up to fifth place in the global ranking, with almost one-fifth of the participants (19 percent) considering it to be a top business risk. The picture in Germany was very similar, except that climate change was ranked slightly lower, in sixth place.
Artificial intelligence also helps cyber gangsters
For the fourth year in a row, cyber attacks have been ranked as the greatest risk for companies. Hackers are also benefiting from the rapid progress in information technology: "Artificial intelligence is also finding its way into the hands of criminals," said Jens Krickhahn, head of cyber insurance at Allianz Commercial.
Artificial intelligence or networked or autonomous machines are now seen as a potential risk for their own company by quite a few managers: "new technologies" have for the first time landed in tenth place among the top risks.
No longer represented in the top ten is a topic that played a major role just a few years ago: the fear of an impending pandemic./cho/DP/zb