After months and weeks of tension, the Russian government’s invasion of Ukraine has elevated concerns for cyber security incidents and the resilience of critical business functions. While there remains a significant amount of uncertainty around the conflict, including the duration, scale and reach, there are some key considerations that can help to evaluate cyber security preparedness levels.

Most, if not all, cyber insurance policies contain a war exclusion of some description. Given the current situation, it is natural that organizations will want to understand how their cyber policy will likely respond in the event of a loss caused by a cyberattack alleged to have been deployed by or on behalf of the Russian state.

Investors should stay restrained and not overreact. Positioning portfolios for the unfolding of geopolitical events whilst they are already developing requires an ability to see into the future. History has shown us that sell-offs driven by geopolitics can be so short-lived that even clairvoyant investors may struggle to time them.

[Free to access upon setting up an account] It feels appropriate, a couple of months after the twentieth anniversary of 9/11, to pause and consider whether the world is more, or less, secure from terrorism than in the latter part of the previous century. We inhabit a world where traditional terrorist threats, which tended to be localised and focused on the destruction of property and killing servicemen, policemen and public figures, feel somewhat primitive. Our new world is populated by Jihadis and extremists who buy ‘one-way tickets’ on route to martyrdom and mass casualty events.