S&P expects the risk of cyber attacks against Ukraine to rise as tensions with Russia escalate. “This could create cascading repercussions for companies, governments and other entities in the area and elsewhere”, write the experts of the US rating agency according to which the economic impact of such an attack for those involved could exceed 10 Billions of dollars estimated for the 2017 ‘NotPetya’ malware attack, given a greater degree of interconnection and digitization.
S&P experts also believe that issuers with weaker IT governance and risk management will be more exposed to rating impacts. S&P is also monitoring the potential credit impact of cyberattacks on insurers and policyholders, given the still ambiguous war risk exclusion clauses in insurance policies.