KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 23): S&P Global Ratings sees heightened risk of additional cyberattacks on Ukraine amid Russia-West tensions.
In a report titled "Cyber Threat Brief: How Worried Should We Be About Cyber Attacks On Ukraine?" released on Wednesday (Feb 23), S&P Global Ratings credit analyst Zahabia Gupta said such an attack could create knock-on effects for corporations, governments and other parties in the region and beyond.
"We are monitoring if such attacks could spill beyond the country's borders and their potential credit implications,” said Gupta.
Gupta said cyberattacks are becoming a more prevalent means of achieving foreign policy objectives, given their lower deployment costs relative to conventional military tactics and an uncertain scope for retaliation.
“These attacks often undermine confidence in key institutions and infrastructure, which implies wider credit implications across sectors and geographies,” she said.
Gupta said this was the case in 2017 when a malware called "NotPetya" was distributed in Ukraine and caused weeks of disruption for about 7,000 companies across 65 countries globally, with estimated economic losses of US$10 billion (about RM41.83 billion) from disruption to operations and supply chains, cost of recovery and lost revenue.
"We believe that the economic impact of such an attack on entities could be more severe now, given increased interconnectedness and digitalisation."
S&P said it considers that issuers with weaker cyber governance and risk management are more exposed to rating implications.
Moreover, it said given still-ambiguous "act of war" exclusion clauses in insurance policies, it is monitoring potential credit impact of cyberattacks on insurers and policyholders.