In the ordinary course of business, we rely upon IT networks and systems, some of which are provided by or leased from third parties, to process, transmit and store electronic information and to manage and support a variety of business processes and activities. The secure operation of these IT networks and the processing and maintenance of this information is critical to our business operations and strategy.
The IT networks and systems upon which we rely face increasing cybersecurity threats, including unauthorized access to sensitive data and service disruptions. These threats come from various actors such as foreign governments, criminals, competitors, hackers, cyber terrorists and politically motivated groups. These IT networks and infrastructure may also be vulnerable to damage, disruptions, shutdowns, or data theft due to future attacks by cyber criminals, employee error or malfeasance, disruptions during the process of upgrading or replacing computer software or hardware, terminations of business relationships by third party service providers, power outages, computer viruses, telecommunication or utility failures, terrorist acts, natural disasters or other catastrophic events. Additionally, political instability in certain geographic regions in which or our business partners operate exposes us to an increased risk of state-sponsored threats.
The occurrence of any adverse cybersecurity events in the future involving us or third parties with which we do business could compromise our or the third parties' networks, and the information stored in those networks could be accessed, publicly disclosed, compromised, destroyed, lost or stolen. We experienced an incident in November 2024 involving a third party obtaining unauthorized access to IT systems of one of our Canadian business units, which we do not believe to have been material to our financial condition or results of operations as a result of our efforts to contain and mitigate the threat; however, failure on our part to successfully prevent or mitigate cybersecurity threats in the future could result in data loss, legal liability and damage to our reputation. We may face legal and financial exposure from such threats, including higher transaction fees and regulatory fines, which could materially affect our business. While our insurance policies cover certain liabilities and lost profits, a significant security incident could result in damages exceeding our coverage. We cannot guarantee that insurance will remain available on reasonable terms or that insurers will not deny future claims. Large claims exceeding our coverage or changes in insurance policies, such as premium increases or higher deductibles, could materially affect our financial condition and cash flows.
We also may incur significant costs to protect against or remediate incidents and may need to invest more resources in prevention and mitigation activities as threats evolve. Regardless of any protective measures that we are taking or may take in the future, our preventative efforts could fail due to a variety of factors, including technical malfunctions and human error. Despite the implementation of any protective measures, we cannot guarantee total success in preventing or detecting all security threats.
In the event that we decide to switch providers or to implement upgrades or replacements to our own systems, we may be unsuccessful in the development of our own systems or we may underestimate the costs and expenses of switching providers or developing and implementing our own systems. Our revenue further may be hampered during the period of implementing an alternative system, which period could extend longer than we anticipated. We are in the midst of a systems conversion project for our European businesses, which will be subject to all of these risks.