The devastating impact of the pandemic has rightly prompted businesses and investors to scour the horizon for other risks they may be overlooking. Most of the focus has been on climate change, but the spotlight should also be turned onto cyber risk, with experts warning that the shutdown of the massive Colonial pipeline in the US could merely be a taster of what it is to come.

There is one obvious difference between pandemics and climate-change risk. Until the beginning of last year, almost no companies or portfolio managers paid any attention to the threat of pandemics, despite countless reports warning of the likelihood of an outbreak that would cause massive economic damage. In contrast, no chief executive or fund management boss could afford to play down climate-change risk. Indeed, some observers, such as former Bank of England governor Lord Mervyn King, believe the ever-increasing focus on climate change may distract attention from other equally serious risks, such as a further pandemic outbreak or cyber-attacks.