Cyber risk moves from IT to liability

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By Anna Lopata, ANZIIF senior writer Ransomware is changing faster than many businesses can respond, but Coveware’s James Finlay says the biggest cyber failures often begin long before attackers arrive. Cyber risk is no longer a narrow technology issue. For...

15 Jun 2026

3 mins read

Summary

- AI is accelerating cyber threats, shrinking the time between vulnerabilities being discovered and exploited, leaving organisations with less time to respond.
  
  Preparation remains the strongest defence, with businesses that regularly test incident response plans recovering faster and avoiding costly operational and reputational fallout.
  
  Cyber incidents increasingly create liability exposures, extending beyond IT disruption to include regulatory investigations, customer claims, contractual disputes and reputational damage.
  
  Common weaknesses remain surprisingly basic, with inactive accounts, poor password management and inadequately protected backups continuing to enable many successful attacks.
  
  Future cyber resilience will depend on board-level understanding, as organisations face growing scrutiny over governance, insurance coverage and the long-term consequences of a cyber event.

By Anna Lopata, ANZIIF senior writer

Ransomware is changing faster than many businesses can respond, but Coveware’s James Finlay says the biggest cyber failures often begin long before attackers arrive.

Cyber risk is no longer a narrow technology issue. For insurers, brokers, boards and liability specialists, it has become a live test of governance, communication, contractual exposure and customer trust.

That is the focus James Finlay, Director, Coveware, will bring to the ANZIIF New Zealand Liability Conference, where he will take delegates inside the pressure, uncertainty and decision-making involved in a ransomware extortion.

Cyber events are preventable

Finlay’s message is blunt: the threat environment is accelerating, but many of the weaknesses that turn cyber events into liability problems remain familiar, preventable and often poorly understood outside the IT function.

“The thing that worries me most is speed,” Finlay says. “Criminals are using AI to find weaknesses in software faster than most organisations can fix them.”

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