Cyberattacks are increasing in frequency: up by 15% in 2021 compared to the previous year
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, with implications for nation states, economic sectors, and individual companies.
Nation state attacks
In 2022, Albania blamed the Iranian administration for multiple cyberattacks on its national systems, which led to geopolitical
risk as the Albanian government considered invoking NATO’s Article 5, where an attack against one member is an attack against all.
Sector attacks
$22 trillion — or 28% of the $80 trillion — in collective debt rated by Moody’s across 71 global sectors has high or very high
cyber risk exposure, an increase of $1 trillion since 2019.
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Moody’s Investors Service scored critical infrastructure sectors
such as electric, gas and water utilities, and not-for-profit hospitals as very high risk.
Company attacks
As the agricultural industry becomes more technologically advanced, there is a higher risk of cyber criminals targeting agribusiness.
In 2020 and 2021, there were several major cyber incidents in the sector, which resulted in the FBI releasing a notice warning
agricultural businesses to be alert and that farming cooperatives are particularly susceptible to cyberattacks, as a successful
attack would have had profound knock-on effects for consumer prices and community wellbeing.
