Risk Landscapes: Traditional & Cyber-Focused

During my insurance industry years (industry itself, management consulting, insurance industry analyst), there were illustrations of the risk landscape of risk events to consumers and/or enterprises at that point-in-time. Often, the risk landscape included attempts at frequency and severity of each risk.

“Traditional” Risk Landscape

For me, the ‘traditional’ risk landscapes encompasses risks, some of them dependent on other risks while others were mostly, if not entirely, standalone.

Essentially, these ‘traditional’ risk landscapes represented a set of analog, time-independent exposures to people’s or enterprise’s physical assets, important / proprietary information, business systems, future financial success, actions, and/or behaviors.

Cyber Age Risk Landscape

Switching over to our current – and expanding – Cyber Age.

The fluid, Nth dimensional cyber-attack space(s) ARE the risk landscapes of the Cyber Age. (There are multiple Cyber Age risk landscapes.)

1. Each time an enterprise digital asset is connected to the web, the Nth dimensional cyber-attack spaces expand in multiple directions and multiple dimensions;
2. Each time a physical artifact with embedded digital assets is connected to the web, the Nth dimensional cyber-attack spaces expand in multiple directions and multiple dimensions;
3. Each time an animal (inclusive of humans, farm animals, laboratory animals, pets) with an IP-enabled sensor is connected to the web, the Nth dimensional cyber-attack spaces expand in multiple directions and multiple dimensions.

Could a cyber-attack of all enterprises, regardless where they are located, sharing the same business operating and/or decision support systems happen simultaneously? You bet your bippy!

Could one cyber-attack cascade through a portfolio of cyber risks, resulting in a systemic cyber attack? Again, you can bet your bippy!

Could one cyber-attack cascade through and impact a vast set of impacted people and physical artifacts? Bippy, yet again!

Essentially, the cyber risk landscape (e.g., always-expanding, never-ending Nth dimensional cyber attack spaces) represents a set of real-time, interconnected, interdependent exposures to people’s or enterprise’s physical assets, important / proprietary information, business systems, future financial success, actions, and/or behaviors.

Thinking about both traditional and cyber age risk landscapes

The ‘traditional’ risk landscape results from people with some combination of physical artifacts, digital artifacts, and nature.

The Cyber Age cyber-attack landscape results from the combination of digital assets, mobile capabilities, cloud deployments, and the web.

Both ‘risk landscapes’ will remain: the near real-time / real-time Cyber Age cyber-attack landscapes will expand and interconnect every person, every enterprise (regardless of size or industry or location on the planet), every activity between people and/or enterprises. The “traditional” landscape will expand but not interconnect with many other people or enterprises across a vast geography.

Where, when, and why will the 2 risk landscape types interconnect?

What could be the result?