A recently released report conducted by KPMG of global CEOs has shocked many. The report was based on information obtained from over 1,000 CEOs of companies with revenues of $500 million or more.
The survey shows that half of the CEOs polled felt that their companies are not prepared, or only partially prepared, to handle a major cyber event.
Hold on, it is about to get a bit more interesting. About 20 percent of the CEOs placed information security risks at the top of their list of business concerns.
To put the risks in context, security icon Symantec recently released a report that disclosed there were 317 million new strains of malware released last year. That is over 10 new strains of malware per second! But it gets worse — there were more than 16 ransomware attacks per second.
Looking ahead as the cyberattack surface continues to rapidly expand given the Internet of Things, wearable technology, the connected car, smart homes and even smart cities all grow in number, the issue highlighted by the numbers above just cannot be tolerated.
Successful cyberattacks are in fact a critical business problem and must be addressed that way. It is clear that executives and even a company’s board of directors are where the buck stops for the legal and business implications resulting from successful cyber incidents. One has to wonder, if we will see criminal charges being filed against an organization’s executives or board members after someone loses their life due to a cyberattack. I have to wonder how long it will be before this happens.
