Risk of cyber incidents weigh heavily on businesses for 2024, report finds

JPMorgan Chase executive Mary Callahan Erdoes said Wednesday the bank deals with a massive onslaught of hackers trying to commit system breaches on a daily basis. 

“There are people trying to hack into JPMorgan Chase 45 billion times a day,” she said, calling those occurrences “2x what it was last year.” She said the bank, which puts $15 billion toward cyber security and technology each year, has thwarted the daily efforts of such hackers.

Erdoes’s comments, at Davos 2024, coincidentally came on the heels of Allianz Commercial on Tuesday releasing a Risk Barometer report identifying cyber incidents as 2024’s “top business risk.” 

Allianz said 36% of the over 3,000 customer businesses, industry trade organizations, risk management professionals and others around the world that participated in its survey pointed to cyber incidents as the risk weighing on them the most for 2024.

COMCAST SAYS XFINITY CYBERSECURITY INCIDENT MAY HAVE COMPROMISED CUSTOMER DATA

That share of respondents who said cyber incidents posed the biggest threat rose by two percentage points from 2023, when it also came in No. 1, the report said. Other years it placed most highly out of 10 types of risks included 2022 and 2020.

The insurance firm considered things like data breaches, IT disruptions, ransomware attacks and fines as cyber incidents. 

A person dressed as an internet hacker is seen with binary code displayed on a laptop screen in this illustration photo taken in Krakow, Poland in August.  (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images / Getty Images)

For cyber incidents, 59% of companies and other survey respondents said risks of data breaches caused the most concern for them, according to the report.

Allianz found that “cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure and physical assets” and “increases in malware/ransomware attacks” tied behind data breaches. Those were cited by 53% of respondents as the “most concerning” cyber risks, according to the data.

FROM DATING SITES TO PHISHING EMAILS: HOW AI IS CREATING MORE REALISTIC SCAMS

“Cyber criminals are exploring ways to use new technology such as generative artificial intelligence to automate and accelerate attacks, creating more effective malware and phishing,” Allianz Commercial Global Head of Cyber Scott Sayce said in a press release. “The growing number of incidents caused by poor cyber security, in mobile devices in particular, a shortage of millions of cyber security professionals, and the threats facing smaller companies because of their reliance on IT outsourcing are also expected to drive cyber activity in 2024.”

A hacker sits behind monitors in a room. (iStock / iStock)

In 2023, companies such as Comcast, Clorox, Mr. Cooper and VF Corp experienced cyber incidents of varying impacts, with some experiencing temporary disruptions in operations.

NORTH FACE, SUPREME PARENT COMPANY SAYS ORDER FULFILLMENT IMPACTED BY CYBERSECURITY INCIDENT  

Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts International, both hotel and casino companies, dealt with cyberattacks. The hotel and casino companies both disclosed their respective attacks in September of last year.

Aside from cyber incidents, business interruptions and natural catastrophes, at 31% and 26% respectively, were also major concerns for businesses in 2024, according to Allianz. Its top-five also included regulation/legislation changes and macroeconomic developments.