Climate Risk Management and the Cybersecurity Dimension

The growing importance of data, which increasingly represent a fundamental asset in the management of financial intermediaries, poses a problem of security and protec- tion of the same. Technological innovation is a crucial element in the sustainable transition process. Digitalization can in fact represent an enabling factor: new tech- nologies can improve the accessibility and exploitation of ESG data, increasing its critical mass and reducing the data gap, with benefits for the resilience of the business model and the effectiveness of the risk management system. A strong commitment on the part of financial intermediaries is therefore essential in redesigning business models, leveraging new technologies, in order to support their ESG transition. In this regard, however, a careful assessment of economic sustainability and adequate monitoring of all related risks are necessary, not least cyber and IT security risks. This growing attention is motivated by the contextual phenomenon of expansion of the cyber threat landscape. Within this context, a regulatory process has been initiated to regulate this area. The new legislative framework on cybersecurity has been enriched with rules for the protection of online systems and services, promoting regulatory measures regarding the protection of ICT infrastructures and essential actors. The information on the cyber security of a company is relevant under various profiles: (i) the transmission of a considerable amount of data and information between insurance companies and client companies is destined to grow in step with the growing complexity of the evaluation models that intermediaries use and which include the integration of information on sustainability and climate risks; (ii) conse- quently, the importance of safeguarding and protecting the data provided by compa- nies increases; (iii) and therefore the ability of the subjects that manage such data (insurance companies) to protect themselves from cyber risks. The choice of turning to one insurance company, rather than another, could be influenced in the future by the better ability to manage the risks related to the security of critical data.