AON highlights value of intangible assets in companies
In the current business ecosystem, adopting digital transformation creates new and unforeseen risks for companies.
Facing this reality, Aon plc, a company dedicated to professional services in risk management, retirement and health, emphasized the most significant risks that organizations may face at present and the importance of taking the appropriate cyber security measures.
“Since 2015, Aon and the Ponemon Institute have studied the impact of the financial status of tangible property and exposure to risk in the network. In this year’s research, we have added threats including intellectual property and what organizations are doing to manage those risks,” said Jesús González, cyber practices leader for Latin America, Aon Commercial Risk Solutions.
The purpose of this research is to compare the relative insurance protection of certain tangible assets versus intangible assets, the latter including cybersecurity; risks and threats that organizations are facing, and intellectual property such as patents, trade secrets, copyright, property information and know-how.
How do the values of intangible assets and possible losses compare with the values of tangible assets and possible losses of other risks in an organization, such as fires and climate?
A better understanding of the impact of the relative financial statement will help organizations allocate resources and determine the appropriate amount of risk transfer (insurance) to assign to mitigate the impact to the financial status of said hazards.
“Organizations need to improve their understanding of the value of information assets. The loss of personally identifiable information is overvalued compared to other information assets,” he said.
“High-value information assets that are proprietary and confidential to an organization include trade secrets and unpublished patent applications,” González said.
“If such information is filtered, deleted or used by a competitor, there would be negative material consequences, such as loss in market share, damage to reputation, loss of customers and business partners, decrease in advantage, and time and expenses associated with the response to incidents, among others,” he said.
To perform the study, Aon and the Ponemon Institute interviewed more than 2,300 people in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia-Pacific, Japan and Latin America who participated in the management of their respective companies’ cyber risks, as well as in business risk management activities.
Most of the respondents come from diverse areas, including finance, treasury and accounting, corporate compliance, and general administration, among others.
