EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
We’re all familiar with the constant drumbeat of cyberattacks. And, we’ve also become fairly fluent in working in the cloud. But often it seems that when it comes to cybersecurity, there is a disconnect between understanding the need to implement cybersecurity on premises and ensuring the same levels of security in the cloud. And now, based on the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Risks Report 2018, that confusion could have perilous economic consequences.
As Tim Wallace from The Telegraph points out, “Increasing numbers of businesses and individuals rely on cloud services for their IT, trusting some of the world’s biggest technology companies to offer safe, good value services over the internet.
But this also concentrates risk in a handful of places, which are attracting increasing attention from criminal hackers and malign states.”
Looking at the global risk landscape, WEF ranks cyberattacks as the third most important risk in terms of likelihood and sixth biggest risk in terms of impact. This ranking is alongside extreme weather and natural disasters.
“The destructive tropical cyclone hurricane Katrina hit the US in 2005, causing $108bn in damage — but that could be exceeded by the cost of a major cyberattack, according to one expert,” writes Danny Palmer in ZDNet.
Wallace goes on to point out the imbalance of resources when comparing those available to address natural disasters versus national cyber agencies. With the latter, resources are far less plentiful–and that can be compounded by the reality that there is an overall dearth of cybersecurity talent.
Writes Wallace, “International protocols have yet to emerge in dealing with cyber risk.
The risk is also growing as governments increasingly become involved in cyberattacks.
The threat of death from natural disasters had set them apart from merely financial costs, but cyberattacks can also cause more than just economic damage and, in some cases, put lives at risk.”
Read the full story at The Telegraph.
