The pensions industry worldwide is underestimating the risks posed by cyber crime, and too few experts are available to help tackle the problem, internet security experts have claimed.
Speaking at the World Pension Summit in The Hague, Lloyd Komori, vice-president of risk management at Canada’s €43bn Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS), argued that internet crime was one of the industry’s biggest risks.
“Of all external and non-investment-related risk for pension funds, this is the scariest,” he said, adding that his pension fund had listed cyber crime in the top three of its “risk shortlist”.
According to Komori, pensions funds acknowledge cyber security risk but do not seem to act “as if there is an enormous shortage of security experts”.