PART II. OTHER INFORMATION
Item 1. Legal Proceedings
We are, and will continue to be, subject to litigation from time to time in the ordinary course of business. Refer to Note 16, “Commitments and Contingencies” to the condensed consolidated financial statements, which is incorporated by reference into this Part II, Item 1 of this Report, for information regarding our lawsuits and proceedings. Except for the lawsuits and proceedings disclosed in Note 16, there were no material changes to our lawsuits and proceedings as compared to those reported in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021.
Item 1A. Risk Factors
Except for the risk factors updated below there were no material changes to our risk factors during the nine months ended September 30, 2022 as compared to those reported in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021.
Global economic conditions may have adverse impacts on our businesses and financial condition.
Changes in economic conditions could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations. A number of economic factors, including, but not limited to, consumer interest rates, consumer confidence and debt levels, retail trends, housing starts, sales of existing homes, the level and availability of mortgage refinancing, and commodity prices, may generally adversely affect our businesses, financial condition and results of operations. Recessionary economic cycles, higher and protracted unemployment rates, increased fuel and other energy and commodity costs, rising costs of transportation and increased tax rates and general inflationary pressures can have a material adverse impact on our businesses, and may adversely affect demand for sales of our businesses’ products, or the costs of materials and services utilized in their operations, and the performance of our Investment Funds. The ongoing conflict in Ukraine has exacerbated many of these issues, including leading to increased prices of gasoline and distillates as a result of the global increase in commodity prices, which for example, has impacted, and may continue to impact, the input costs for our Energy segment. These factors could have a material adverse effect on our revenues, income from operations and our cash flows.
We and our subsidiaries are subject to cybersecurity and other technological risks that could disrupt our information technology systems and adversely affect our financial performance.
Threats to information technology systems associated with cybersecurity and other technological risks and cyber incidents or attacks continue to grow. We and our subsidiaries depend on the accuracy, capacity and security of our information technology systems and those used by our third-party service providers. In addition, we and our subsidiaries collect, process and retain sensitive and confidential information in the normal course of business, including information about our employees, customers and other third parties. Despite the security measures we have in place and any additional measures we may implement in the future, our facilities, systems, and networks, and those of our third-party service providers, could be vulnerable to security breaches, computer viruses, lost or misplaced data, programming errors, human errors, employee misconduct, malicious attacks, acts of vandalism or other events. In addition, hardware, software or applications we develop or obtain from third parties may contain defects in design or manufacture or other problems that could result in security breaches or disruptions. Further, the United States government has warned of the potential risk of Russian cyberattacks stemming from the ongoing Russian/Ukraine conflict. These events or any other disruption or compromise of our or our third-party service providers’ information technology systems could negatively impact our business operations or result in the misappropriation, loss or other unauthorized disclosure of sensitive and confidential information. Such events could damage our reputation, expose us to the risks of litigation and liability, disrupt our business or otherwise affect our results of operations, any of which could adversely affect our financial performance.