With an average of three catastrophic cyber attacks each day, cybersecurity has eclipsed turbulent financial markets as the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds’ top worry.
The frequency of hacking attempts against Norway’s $1. 2 trillion oil fund has more than doubled in the previous two to three years, according to its CEO, Nikolai Tangen.
According to top executives at the Norwegian Oil Fund, the fund, which disclosed its largest dollar loss in half a year last week after inflation and recession concerns rattled markets, suffers from over 100,000 cyber attacks each year, with more than 1,000 of them considered severe.
Tangin told the Financial Times that he is more concerned about the internet than the markets. We were witnessing an increase in attempts, as well as more sophisticated assaults.
Senior officials at the funds expressed concern about recent cyber attacks, which have become a systemic financial risk as markets have grown increasingly digitalized.
Trond Grandi, Executive Vice President, mentioned the 2020 attack on Solarwinds by Russian state-backed hackers, which let them to enter various US government institutions, including the Treasury, the Pentagon, and a number of Fortune 500 corporations. Microsoft, Intel, and Deloitte are among them.
According to cybersecurity firm SonicWall, cyberattacks against the financial industry have escalated drastically in recent months, with malware infections jumping 11% globally in the first half of 2022, but more than tripling in banks and financial institutions.
According to SonicWall CEO Brian Connor, Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea are among the countries that actively support cyber attacks. He noted that as sanctions increase, so does the demand for money.
The danger landscape for such companies, according to a cybersecurity consultant who advises another sovereign wealth fund, is immense.
According to him, around half of network invasions are phishing efforts, while the other half are remote access assaults utilising stolen credentials.
In the financial industry, national security agencies have focused on weaknesses in banks, stock exchanges, and fundamental financial infrastructure such as clearinghouses, such as the twice-yearly cyberwar games exercise in the United States. However, executives at investment firms have become increasingly concerned about cybersecurity. In recent years, several have warned against underestimating the hazards and bemoaned the growing costs of guarding against assaults.
Growing tensions with Russia in the North during the Ukraine crisis have compounded worries in the technology industry. With Russia’s present financial crisis and growing sanctions, the Nordic countries may be more vulnerable to Russian cyber attacks, according to Connor.
Every year, 100,000 cyber assaults threaten the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund.
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