(Bloomberg) – The threat of cyber attacks and politicalinstability resulting from rising populism are among the biggestworries for businesses around the world, according to a study ofcompanies in 79 countries.
|The number one issue for executives working in business continuity and resilience is thethreat from hackers, with 88 percent of companies included in thesurvey saying they are "extremely concerned" or "concerned" at therisk.
|Political upheaval among top 10 threats
For the first time, political upheaval ranked among the top 10threats, following the U.K.'s vote to leave the European Union andthe election of Donald Trump in the U.S., according to the reportby the Business ContinuityInstitute and British StandardsInstitution.
|"Cyber-attacks and data breaches continue to cost organizationsbillions of dollars annually, a sum that is only likely to go upwith the increasing integration of new pieces of technology intodaily operations," BCI Executive Director David Thorp saidin the foreword to the report. "Politics too has been a dominanttopic this year, certainly more than in the recent past."
|The study comes as governments and businesses seek to strengthenresilience to cyber attacks. Companies on both sides of theAtlantic are also grappling with political uncertainty over changesto commerce policies, from taxes to trade tariffs, beingplanned in the U.S. and the U.K.
|Data breach 2nd among global business fears
The study is based on responses from 726 organizations insectors including financial and insurance services, retail anddefense. Companies ranged from small businesses, with fewer than250 staff, to corporations with more than 100,000 employees andannual turnover of more than 50 billion euros, the report's authorssaid.
|After cyber attacks, the threat of a data breach ranked second amongglobal business fears, while an unplanned IT and telecom outage wasthird. For the first time in the study's six-year history,uncertainty related to "new laws and regulations"— arising from political change — entered thelist of top 10 business continuity concerns.
|Related: The 3 R's to remedy a cyber breach
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