CyberCube, a provider of cyber risk analytics, has warned that organisations must prepare for the escalating risk of unplanned technology outage events, primarily driven by a rise in cloud service provider outages and an increased frequency of industry-wide Single Point of Failure (SPoF) events.
In their Global Threat Briefing report, CyberCube highlights how cloud disruptions appear to be accelerating at an alarming rate, which is impacting critical services across various sectors.
The report states that the re/insurance market should prepare for SPoF technology outage events, as demonstrated in 2024 by notable industry-level outage events such as the Change Healthcare attack, CDK Global ransomware event, and the global CrowdStrike IT outage.
Readers will recall that Hiscox Group Chief Underwriting Officer (CUO), Joanne Musselle previously said that the CrowdStrike outage is expected to drive greater demand for cyber insurance as it highlighted the risks businesses and individuals are to face when impacted with an event like this.
Moreover, the report notes that cyberattacks on critical industries such as Energy & Utilities, Transportation & Logistics, and the Public sector have intensified globally, with nation-state actors, including Russian, Iranian, North Korean, and Chinese groups, posing significant threats by targeting key infrastructure for geopolitical gains.
According to the United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) it has “already responded to 50% more nationally significant incidents compared to last year”, which is a rather alarming increase.
“Nation-state cyber threat actors are increasingly leveraging cybercriminal ransomware tactics in their attacks to achieve geopolitical and strategic objectives. This trend allows nation-states to mask their operations as ordinary criminal activity, making it more difficult for targeted entities and governments to directly attribute their attacks to state-sponsored activities. Additionally, ransomware is a highly effective tool for disrupting critical sectors,” the report reads.
In fact, both nation-state and criminal actors have targeted electricity providers, power grids, and water utilities through ransomware and other disruptive tactics.
The report explains that these incidents range from attacks affecting both local and national utility operations, including those in the British Virgin Islands and the United States, to data theft and extortion schemes aimed specifically towards industrial software suppliers in countries such as France and the Netherlands.
However, while the majority of these attacks have not caused interruptions in power delivery, CyberCube noted that they highlight the growing risks to this critical sector on a global scale.
Furthermore, CyberCube also addressed how the US Public sector faces persistent cyberattacks from a growing nexus of nation-state and criminal threat actors working in tandem to destabilize society and erode trust in institutions.
The report explains that these actors are attempting to exploit vulnerabilities in public-sector networks, which include state and local governments, election-related systems, and critical infrastructure, with an aim to disrupt key services, obtain access to sensitive data, and manipulate public opinion.
Analysis of cyber criminal threats also show that ransomware still predominantly impacts the US, however there are also specific countries that are witnessing a rise in the threat too, notably those in and around conflict zones such as Ukraine, and among some countries whose governments have publicly invested in cryptocurrency reserves.
The report ultimately states that insurers must adapt by developing more precise policy language and implementing sophisticated threat intelligence.
It also added that insurers should be working closely with governments and security agencies to help improve attribution and response mechanisms.
“With cyber threats now often straddling the line between criminal activity and state-sponsored actions, resilience hinges on the ability to adapt, safeguard critical operations, and respond to cascading and systemic risks swiftly and effectively. As we approach 2025, the imperative is clear: a comprehensive, adaptive approach to quantifying cyber risk is crucial to ensuring societal stability in our increasingly interconnected digital world,” the report reads.
