Topical issues of organizing insurance protection for large industrial companies: the main points from the RusRisk and MGIMO seminar

At the end of March, the twelfth meeting was held within the framework of the permanent RusRisk seminar. The organizers were the RusRisk Association and the MGIMO Department of Risk Management and Insurance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia.

Key theses from experts

🔹 Professor K.E. Turbina noted that traditional property insurance does not include cyber threats in the terms of the insurance contract and requires a long preparatory period for risk assessment.:

«Cyber incidents are becoming an increasingly significant cause of multibillion-dollar losses in enterprises and financial institutions. Restoration and return to normal commercial activity is often complicated by the destruction of necessary information, software, equipment, and architecture of the information system.»

🔹 Kaspersky Lab’s leading threat research expert, V.D. Dashchenko, drew attention to the fact that the number of cyber incidents is decreasing, but the destructiveness of attacks is increasing. Retail, construction, and finance are at risk. The geography of hackers is expanding:

«Not only traditional hackers of European or American origin are involved in the organization of cyber attacks, but the geography of participants is clearly expanding, as can be seen from the handwriting of the algorithms for penetrating the attacked information systems.» A.A. Mazai, Director of Financial Risk and Liability Insurance at Elbrus Insurance broker, and B. Orlov, Chief Specialist of Norilsk Nickel’s Insurance and Financial Risks Department, emphasized that in case of a cyberattack, it is important to immediately involve the insurer and cybersecurity experts — this limits the damage. The most difficult stage is the assessment of downtime and recovery costs.

«Early interaction allows you to block the spread of consequences, narrowing the perimeter of the attack, allows you to quickly assess the affected elements of the company’s global information infrastructure, testing hidden damage and traces.»

The seminar was attended by specialists from surveying and appraisal companies, professional market participants (insurance companies, brokers), as well as representatives of the Russian industry. Of particular interest were the cases shared by Kaspersky Lab representative V.D. Dashchenko. The expert spoke about attacks on Aeroflot, regional retailers and food manufacturers, and also shared information about ways to protect against cyber attacks and test the vulnerability level of policyholders.

At the end of the seminar, the participants continued the discussion in an informal setting. The students who participated in the discussion were invited to take internships and internships in the participating companies of the seminar.

🎥 The recording of the seminar (provided by MGIMO) is available until April 30. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1PvPgui1UrvWiWvgrogFU5nAxFIRLIYci

The author of the photo is the MGIMO Department of Risk Management and Insurance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia