Mumbai:
India Inc.is witnessing unprecedented times as technology becomes a part of life for all companies – irrespective of the sector one operates in.
With new technology such as Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Cloud Computing, Blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT) come the associated risks such as cyber-attacks, data theft, cloud hacks etc. India was the target of 17% cyberattacks, second only to US (38%) between 2015 – 2017 as per a report by Symantec Corp, USA.
According to a pan India survey,commissioned by the ICICI Lombard General Insurance, titled ‘Managing New Age Risks’ to assess the preparedness of Indian organisations towards new age risks, insurers perceived to moderately equipped to deal with new age risks
Feedback from CXOs from 100 companies across various sectors was taken for this research.
Bhargav Dasgupta, MD & CEO, ICICI Lombard, “New age risks are already a reality today, globally and in India. It is most critical that Indian firms take cognizance of this aspect. As is evident from our ‘Managing New Age Risks’ survey, being prepared and having the right risk management framework in place is the need of the hour.''
The report highlights that companies still consider traditional risks as extremely crucial for their businesses.
58 per cent of the respondents thought that property and assets was the most pivotal risk followed by employee health and accident (53 per cent). Machinery and equipment closely followed at 52 per cent. When asked on which risks have been gaining importance in the last 3 years, the response was clearly for new age risks such as cyber-crimes, data theft etc. 67 per cent of India Inc. today feels that risks from cyber-crimes have increased substantially in the last 3 years and 63% believe risks from data thefts have gone up substantially in the same period.
In terms of the challenges to handle risks, 43 per cent company executives mentioned each new age risk incident to be unique, while 42% found it difficult to even identify the source of the new age risk incident, making managing it a tough task. 21 per cent firms believed that new age risk incidents spread too fast, making it difficult for firms to handle them.
Lack of internal capabilities was a key takeaway when it came to preparedness of organisations in managing new age risks. 41 per cent respondents believed that their existing systems were not equipped to handle these risks, while 39% companies felt there was a shortage of skilled manpower that could address these risks.
When asked about the best way to handle new age risks, 71 per cent companies had a unanimous response that new age risks would rather be prevented, instead of being handled when they occur. On the role of insurers, 81 per cent companies believe that insurers are equipped to a certain extent in managing new age risks. Specifically, companies believe that insurers are more equipped to manage risks such as cloud computing (100per cent) and cyber-attacks (69 per cent). However, when it comes to data theft related risks, 63 per cent firms believe that the same can be managed internally.