As our global economy becomes more digital, inter-connected and networked, risks posed to countries, companies, infrastructure and individuals from cybersecurity threats are only going to rise – more so, if the digitisation of everything (DoE) grows faster than expected, in particular fuelled by shifts in how society may operate in a post-pandemic world. The cost of inflicted damages globally from cyber crime is expected to reach USD10trn by 2025, up from USD6trn today. Cyber spend is predicted to rise to at least USD270bn per annum by 2026; but it could exceed current expectations, fuelled by increasing threats from hacks and the tightening of cyber-related regulations globally.

What is cybersecurity today? We look at types of cyber attack, their cost, the damage inflicted and how the pandemic is changing the evolution of cybersecurity. We explore cybersecurity products and solutions such as Security Operations Centres (SOC) including managed security services (MSS) and payment authentication technologies.

ESG implications from cybersecurity. Environment: cybersecurity breaches targeting vulnerabilities in the energy and power sector can pose significant environmental risks. Social: impacts of cyber attacks on individuals go beyond financial and emotional damage. Emerging markets are particularly vulnerable. Governance: cybersecurity is growing in importance at company board level due to increasing cyber threats, regulations and fines, leading to potential reputational and stock market risk.

Financial, stock market and insurance implications. We outline why companies may be underspending on cybersecurity and discuss how insurance is set to grow rapidly. And we investigate how stock markets react to cyber breach disclosures.

Enterprise security. We highlight the cybersecurity ecosystem and solutions, products and services provided. We look at different cybersecurity issues and trends from a sector level.

State level cybersecurity and regulations. We review cybersecurity legislation and growing national cyber defence budget trends, and how this may be a boon to the cybersecurity ecosystem.

Did you know?

 Cybersecurity spend is set to grow between 7.7% and 14.5% CAGR from 2020 to 2026.

 Global cyber crime is expected to triple to USD10trn in inflicted damages between 2015 and 2025.

 Cybersecurity premiums are set to increase by 20-30% per year on average. The Global cyber insurance market is set to grow from about USD7bn to 20bn by 2025.

 Data/cyber-related penalties now include imprisonment, for example in South Africa.

We also publish an accompanying report in which we highlight companies exposed to cybersecurity – Cybersecurity: nine stocks exposed to the theme, 29 April 2021.