Tag: network
What cyber-security insiders discussed at Davos 2017
When global leaders met recently for the World Economic Forum’s annual summit in Davos, Switzerland, there was much talk regarding the threats to globalization from political changes in Western countries. But another kind of change that’s often closer to home is threats to our everyday lives and businesses from cyber-attacks, a hot topic in last year’s U.S. presidential election. Experts aired their concerns at the summit, and based on my observations, here’s what came up most often: Worries about increased hacking of political systems as well as enterprises and organizations. Issues of privacy, bullying and trolling as well as the …
What the communication revolution means for global leaders today
The theme of last year’s Davos, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, became the underlying force driving many of the unexpected developments we’ve seen in 2016. With the rapid and exponential growth of connectivity and networking predicted by Moore’s Law, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is disrupting many fields, but none more strikingly than democracy — and capitalism. Both institutions are based on the freedom to choose a leader, product or service based on the best available information. But only now are we realizing the significance of how this information is created, delivered, modified and consumed — how it has been skewed by the exponential growth in …
Sensors, Vulnerabilities, and Data Protections
Many of us find ourselves with multiple gadgets – in our pockets, our homes, our cars, our offices – and these gadgets are increasingly built to talk to each other, often automatically and invisibly. Camera phones upload straight to the Web and connect through WiFi and Bluetooth to unseen computer networks; the printer next to your desk can suddenly start printing out documents sent from a branch office on the other side of the world, and our cars automatically pull down information from the sky on the latest traffic and weather conditions. Even common documents (licenses, passports, payment cards) that …
Moving beyond fear, uncertainty and doubt on cyber attacks
Too often, the conversation on cybersecurity is predicated on fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD): amplifying the latest news of how good hackers are getting, setting off alarm bells when it comes to vulnerabilities. Headlines only highlight the growing sophistication of hackers and introduce readers to terms like “botnet” and “Internet of Things” often without the proper context. The danger in this, especially with so much noise about so many well-publicized attacks, is that people become desensitized and lax about cybersecurity in general. That creates a herd mentality through which people will grow numb and feel helpless — what else can one feel …
This is what makes governments vulnerable to hackers
Cyber-attacks are on the rise and everyone and everything from celebrities to hospitals are being targeted. Some are expecting government to take the lead on next steps, but earlier this year, a cyber-security risk analysis firm scored U.S. local, state and federal governments at the bottom of a ranking comparing 17 private industries such as healthcare and retail. The report, by security rating startup SecurityScorecard, took in 600 government organizations and said they struggled in particular with malware infections, network security and software patching. “Federal agencies may be susceptible to more risk due to the sheer size of their infrastructure, …