James McFarlin is a former high-tech CEO, noted author and international speaker on cyber security. (Twitter: @jimmcfarlin). The second edition of his cyberthriller “Aftershock: A Novel” was released in March of 2014.
If there were any lingering doubts that cybersecurity is a geopolitical issue with global implications, such opinions were cast on the rocks by discussions this past week at the 2015 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The overall industry tone of caution around active defenses may be calibrated to defuse the notion rather than taking the argument, buying time for other alternatives to surface.
U.S tech giants are playing a game of high-stakes global brinksmanship around who has rights to control their data, which impacts their European growth prospects, business models, and ultimately stock valuations.
If North Korea is connected to the Sony attacks, it would be an archetypal example of such a weaker state using cyber operations to level the playing field in potential confrontations with the United States.
Was the plan by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) to create a new inter-agency working group comprised of data security regulators a reaction to the recent acceleration of nationwide data breaches?
Whether Adm. Michael Rogers can capitalize on opportunities to pull together the teamwork necessary to shore up America’s cybersecurity is a game just begun.
Very little will get a board of directors’ attention as quickly as a cyber data breach with its attendant risks of damage to market capitalization, competitive advantage and brand reputation.
Does a dangerous threat lie with ISIS’s possible use of cyber weapons against American critical infrastructure, financial system or other targets? Will such attacks be attempted and do the capabilities exist within ISIS to do so?
With risks to national and economic security increasing, other avenues of cyber defense are receiving attention. Improving resilience and the promising application of predictive analysis to the prevention of cyberattacks before they occur are two such areas
Creative disruption, where a paradigm shift in thinking replaces an existing order, may be an elusive concept but its power as a driving force of human behavior cannot be denied.
Launched in 2009, CyberPatriot began with eight high school cybersecurity teams competing for scholarships. In just six years, participation quickly expanded to more than 1500 teams around the world.
One can only hope our nation’s alarm clocks wake up and stir our national leaders’ imaginations before a cyber incident of the magnitude of 9/11 results in the need for a “Cyber Strikes Commission Report.”
With what may have been a subtle reference to former Target Stores CEO Greg Steinhafel, who lost his job from his handling of cyber attacks, speaker and panelist Rebecca Scorzato set the stage for her opening comments at July’s exceptional Suits & Spooks cybersecurity forum in New York.