Page 122 - Cyber Defense eMagazine September 2025

consider for a moment the impact that shutting down an entire food supply chain or logistics system could
have if it prevented military resupplies during a time of war.

The fact is a single phishing email has the potential to open the door to a national crisis. The threat of
cyber warfare is real.

Global fallout beyond the battlefield

The most concerning feature of cyber warfare is just how quickly malware, ransomware and other threat
types can spread across borders. The technical nature of such attacks means that they’re not limited by
the laws of time and speed that traditional warfare methods are and can therefore impact new locations
and whole nations almost immediately. A pressing example of this was the NotPetya incident of 2017,
intended to disrupt systems in Ukraine, quickly spread globally, paralysing shipping companies,
manufacturers and retailers in dozens of countries.

This reality means no organisation can consider itself outside the threat radius when the conflict is being
fought on the cyber battlefield. Whilst not the primary targets, businesses large and small may find
themselves ensnared in a large-scale incident simply by being connected to global supply chains.

The consumer as a target

Cyber warfare also reaches into the daily lives of ordinary citizens. Disinformation campaigns are often
used to manipulate perceptions, polarise communities and undermine trust in public institutions. As part
of these tactics, phishing scams can masquerade as urgent messages from government agencies,
ultimately luring individuals into revealing personal information or installing malicious software.
Even stolen personal data has strategic value. When aggregated, it can help adversaries identify and
manipulate individuals who hold influence over security, politics or public opinion. This makes consumers
an integral part of the threat landscape, whether they realise it or not and acts as a foot in the door for
these malicious threat actors.

The insurance challenge

All these challenges have considerable knock-on effects for cyber insurance. While traditional policies
are often designed around isolated, predictable risks, cyber warfare introduces new systemic risks in the
form of attacks that cause simultaneous, widespread damage across multiple industries and
geographies.

This raises complex questions about coverage. Many policies exclude acts of war, leading to disputes
about whether a given incident falls under that definition. Insurers may struggle to meet claims in the face
of a mass-scale cyber event, leaving businesses unexpectedly exposed at the moment they most need
financial support.

Cyber Defense eMagazine – September 2025 Edition 122
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