AI elevates cyber threat landscape as nations go to the polls, warns Munich Re
Almost 90% of businesses not adequately protected against cyber risk
Cyber risk will increasingly be driven by AI that makes it faster and cheaper to distribute attacks at scale, warns Munich in its Cyber Insurance: Risks and Trends 2024 report. It stresses that AI is already behind phishing emails and vishing calls to scam victims, and could be used by nation states to spread disinformation and undermine democratic processes this year and beyond.
“The potential social, economic and geopolitical impact could be enormous, as the lines between the physical and virtual worlds, and between truth and fakery, become even more blurred,” says Munich Re. “A major focus of malicious state-driven attacks will likely be on disrupting elections in a propagandistic and manipulative manner, and to cast doubt on their integrity,” it adds, in the year when more than 40 major elections are set to take place across the world.
“Countering disinformation and exposing fake content will be a challenge for any democracy, as will protecting the electoral process with all its digital components,” says Munich Re. “The advancing sophistication of cyber criminals and the tense geopolitical situation shape the cyber threat landscape and pose a threat to global societies and democracies.”
The report notes that while the cyber insurance market continues to mature, challenges remain to meet growing demand for cyber risks.
According to Munich Re’s Cyber Risk and Insurance Survey 2024, 87% of global decision-makers say their company is not adequately protected against cyber risks.
Thomas Blunck, CEO of reinsurance at Munich Re, said: “There is still too high a proportion of uninsured cyber risks. According to our current global cyber survey, 87% of managers surveyed state that their company is not adequately protected against cyber risks. Risk awareness and demand will continue to rise, also against the backdrop of a rapidly growing threat from aggressive cyber criminals, new technologies and dependencies, and geopolitical crises.”
