Business and industry leaders, government organizations, military and intelligence organizations and prominent individuals are all experiencing the uncomfortable feeling that comes with being hacked and the need to address cyber security. This topic made it to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, with an early morning hotel meeting where business leaders are trying to address this threat proactively.
One conversation that took place is getting a fair amount of attention. It deals with a plan for a global body that would establish cyber security standards and some say it would be similar to IATA which does so for airplanes. In another conversation, John Chambers the CEO of Cisco, was reported as saying “The number of security incidents this year will be exponentially greater than last year.”
These conversations are deeply worrisome. In fact, Fortune Online published a piece titled “Cybersecurity fears put a chill on the Davos feelgood vibe.”
This is not the only report about the downtrodden demeanor of executives attending the event. They are not the only ones feeling down about the subject. One major cyber security solution commented that with all the major breaches that have taken place, with increased fines and the litigation, most organizations are not increasing their budgets. I guess he was right because within hours of that conversation I was talking to a CISO at a critical infrastructure provider and he told me his budget was just reduced by 12 percent.
The seriousness of this issue seems to be escaping the vast majority of individuals and even those that have experienced a cyber attack/breach first hand have a lukewarm response to improving cyber security with cost being an influencing factor. So what good would another standard be if organizations do not fund the necessary changes in order to become compliant with the standard? Talk is cheap and the time for talk is over – what we need is action.
