Executives in the transportation industry are most worried about cyber vulnerability and risks arising from technology, according to a new report by Willis Towers Watson.
The broker’s 2016 Transportation Risk Index, which polled 350 senior executives, discovered that the single biggest individual threat across all modes of transport is increased security threat from cyber and data privacy breaches.
“There is no denying that the skillsets of the digital threat actors are growing, just as the transportation industry’s increased reliance on third-parties is multiplying the potential points of entry,” the firm said.
Technological developments – from automation to the Internet of Things – mean that supply chains are more connected and reliant on technology than ever before, the report explained.
The following are the top 10 risks across the transportation sector, half of which are from the “digital” megatrend:
- Increased security threat from cyber and data privacy breaches
- Failure of critical IT systems
- Dependence on third-party suppliers
- Third-party security vulnerability and digital supply chain resilience
- Competition/anti-trust law scrutiny associated with M&A activity
- Increased complexity of regulation
- Inability to keep up with pace of change and technological advancement
- Threat from new and emerging competitors
- Over-dependence on national infrastructure
- New technologies obsolescing existing transport infrastructure
With the transportation world rapidly evolving, risk strategies need to be responsive and dynamic, according to Mark Hue Williams, head of transportation industry for Willis Towers Watson.
“Regulation and technological advances are demanding new operating models while, simultaneously, hostile actors are mounting attacks to take advantage of the industry’s strategic role in the global economy,” Williams said.
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