Biggest risks to businesses worldwide 2018-2024

Cyber incidents were the leading risk to businesses globally for 2024, according to a survey carried out among risk management experts in late 2023. These cyber incidents refer to things such as cyber crime, IT failure or outages, data breaches, and fines and penalties. The global cyber insurance market is forecast to grow consistently in coming years.

What is cyber crime?

Cyber crime refers to any criminal activities carried out through the use of a computer, a digital network, or the internet. As of January 2024, the biggest reported data leak to occur in the past few years was the 2020 hack of the online platform Cam4, which affected more than 10 billion user accounts. In 2020, the Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI) ranked the United States as the country with the highest commitment to cyber security.

Cyber attacks in the U.S.

Instances of cyber crime has been on the rise in recent years, with the annual number of data breaches in the U.S. reaching a total of over 3,200 in 2023. At the same time, about 350 million individuals were seemingly affected by record exposure. In 2023, the most common type of cyber attack experienced by U.S.-based companies was network intrusion. Network intrusion refers to unauthorized access to a corporate network.