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Transportation sector target for terror attacks in 2013: Aon


January 28, 2014   by Canadian Underwriter


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Aon Risk Solutions announced Tuesday it has released its annual terrorism and political violence map, which displays colour-coded ratings, of 200 countries and territories, on the risk of several perils to business, including terrorism, riots, insurrection and war.

The map is meant to help organizations assess the risk of terrorism and political violence. There are five ratings: negligible, low, medium, high and severe.

Canada was rated negligible while the United States was rated low. Other countries with low ratings included Britain and France, while Germany and Belgium were rated negligible.

“Despite some improvements in the ratings – eight decreases and just one increase to the 37 country scores that cover Sub-Saharan Africa in 2014, Africa remains a continent of high political violence and terrorism risk, with 22 countries having high to severe risk ratings,” Aon stated in a press release. “Empirically, the Middle East is the region most afflicted by terrorism in the world, with a 28% share of all terrorist attacks recorded worldwide in 2013.”

The company noted 33% of terrorist attacks in 2013 affected the rail sector while 18% took place on the transportation sector.

“The retail sector includes venues such as public markets, which remain vulnerable to attack as seen last year in Kenya,” Aon stated. “Terrorism remains a variable threat in the Eurasia region, with Russia and Turkey the most affected by the threat through 2013. Additionally, the Winter Olympics in Russia, which will involve significant mass transportation moves, is seen as a potential terrorist target.”

Russia was rated as medium risk.

The ratings are based on judgments by a panel of experts. Some countries include peril icons, intended to represent the forms of political violence most likely to be encountered by businesses. One icon is for terrorism and sabotage; another is for strikes, riots, civil commotion and malicious damage; while the third is for insurrection, revolution, rebellion, mutiny, coup d’etat, civil war and war.

Four countries – Brazil, Japan, Mozambique and Bangladesh – have higher risk scores in 2014 than in 2013.

“Compared to the previous year, 34 countries attained reduced country risk scores,” Aon stated. “In contrast with other regions, Europe saw notable improvement with 11 countries having civil commotion perils removed.”


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