Security News > 2022 > October > Moody's turns up the heat on 'riskiest' sectors for cyberattacks

About $22 trillion of global debt rated by Moody's Investors Service has "High," or "Very high" cyber-risk exposure, with electric, gas and water utilities, as well as hospitals, among the sectors facing the highest risk of cyberattacks.

For its Cyber Heatmap, Moody's looks at two factors, exposure and mitigation, and weighs both across all of the sectors it rates.

Exposure includes the industry's "Systemic role" - its attractiveness as a target from an attacker's perspective looking to trigger maximum disruption, along with its interconnectedness to other sectors - and "Digitatization" or its digital footprint, which expands the potential attack surface.

Based on exposure and mitigation, Moody's scores each of the 71 sectors and rates them "Low," "Moderate," "High" or "Very-high risk." According to this year's Heatmap, and perhaps unsurprisingly, utilities rated the highest for cyber risk.

As Moody's noted, "This does not mean the issuers within these sectors have weak cybersecurity practices."

High-risk sectors include banks, technology, telecommunications and midstream energy, while the Heatmap lists advanced economy and emerging countries, regional and local governments, manufacturing, retail and apparel, and integrated oil as moderate-risk.

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https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2022/10/03/moodys_cyber_risk_ratings/