'Cybersecurity risks to get worse'

San Francisco, May 6: Showing his concern about the threat to the insurance industry, CEO of multinational conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway Warren Buffett has said that cybersecurity risks will get worse in the years to come. “Cyber is uncharted territory. It’s going to get worse, not better,” CNBC quoted Buffett as saying at the company’s annual meeting held at Omaha city in the US state of Nebraska late on Saturday. He said he believed that cybersecurity incidents would rise and with it the potential to significantly harm the insurance industry. “There’s a very material risk which did not exist 10 or 15 years ago and will be much more intense as the years go along,” he added.

Buffett said he does not want “much underwriting exposure to cybersecurity threats for Berkshire’s insurance businesses”. According to the executive, the company has a “pretty good idea” on how to properly assess the probabilities for earthquakes in California and hurricanes in Florida, but not with computer hacking threats. The investor expressed scepticism that any insurance company can assess the risk for cybersecurity events, the CNBC report said. (IANS)