Cyber safety: one of the major companies concerns

I’m sure you have read about Sony’s latest leaks, the cyberattacks to Medias like The New York Times and the chaos created when cybercriminals paralyzed some banks payment networks. Nevertheless there are many other silent virtual crimes: both big corporations and small and medium businesses can suffer breaches in their data without anyone noticing anything, not even the workers.

Nowadays most banking transactions are conducted online, and almost every company has a web platform where they manage their documents and emails. That makes me wonder why computer security remains an outstanding issue in many organizations. Are they aware of the risks they are taking? Or, is it just that the new types of malware surpass their security measures?

This is not a trivial issue as we saw in the World Economic Forum (WEF), which took place last January in Davos (Switzerland). Many analysts, politicians and CEOs showed their concern and warned the public about this issue.

John Chambers, Cisco’s CEO, could not have said it better: “There are two types of companies: those who have been hacked, and those who don’t yet know they have been hacked.” Putting into words the issue’s significance at the WEF.

Moreover the situation is echoed by the 2015 Global Risks Report, elaborated by the WEF, and includes the cyberattacks as the futures more pressing dangers. “Innovation is critical to global prosperity, but also creates new risks. We must anticipate the issues that will arise from emerging technologies, and develop the safeguards and governance to prevent avoidable disasters.” said the President of Global Risk and Specialties at Marsh.

Technological Risks according to the Global Risks Report 2015 at the World Economic Forum

Cyber safety is now one of the major companies concerns. The forum had already published another analysis dedicated solely to this issue: “Risk and Responsibility in a Hyperconnected World” in collaboration with McKinsey & Company.

According to the experts, the technology sector, which includes big data analysis and cloud storage, could produce between 9.6 and 21.6 billion dollars of global profits.

Cybersecurity is precisely one of the barriers that ensure the favorable indicators. But if the sophistication of the attacks surprises the defensive capabilities of the equipment, the altercation would cause serious damages. In addition, the implementation of new regulations and limits for the corporations would slow down the economic and technological innovation and progress.

The report states that in order to protect companies and society in general from the negative effects a collaboration framework between public and private sectors should be stablished. Global cooperation from the authorities in order to develop new strategies that replace the traditional obsolete ones is needed.

The cost of the attacks can conceal the possible profits. Stephen Catlin, president of Lloyd (insurance market) recently claimed that the losses caused by cybercriminals can reach so important sums of money that the governments should take responsibility.

Also, companies need funds in order to research new types of malware and develop new methods that prevent cybercrimes. Chambers ended his speech at the forum expressing his fear of what is about to happen: “In 2014 the issues related to cybersecurity have deteriorated, and 2015 would be much worse.”

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