{"id":31213,"date":"2020-01-03T14:58:37","date_gmt":"2020-01-03T14:58:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/?p=31213"},"modified":"2020-01-03T15:00:06","modified_gmt":"2020-01-03T15:00:06","slug":"cyber-risks-are-becoming-more-complex-and-challenging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/2020\/01\/03\/cyber-risks-are-becoming-more-complex-and-challenging\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Cyber risks are becoming more complex and challenging&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>The rate at which digital technology is evolving and disrupting traditional business models, cyber risks seem to evolve even faster. John McLoughlin, cybersecurity expert and CEO at J2 Software, tells <em>Intelligent CIO<\/em> that business leaders are now clearly recognising the critical nature of cyber threats and starting to identify and embrace best practices to mitigate risks.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cyber risk has moved beyond data breaches and privacy, there are now sophisticated attacks that are disrupting entire countries, industries, businesses and supply chains. This is costing the economy billions and affecting businesses in every sector. Unfortunately, cyber risk cannot be eliminated, but it can be mitigated and managed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The most\nsavvy businesses are building cyber resilience through comprehensive, balanced\ncyber risk management strategies, rather than concentrating solely on\nprevention. These more complex approaches account for the need to build\ncapabilities in understanding, assessing and quantifying cyber risks in the\nfirst place, as well as adding the tools and the resources to respond to and\nrecover from cyber incidents when they inevitably occur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As cyber risks become increasingly complex and challenging, there are encouraging signs in the <em>2019 Global Cyber Risk Perception Survey <\/em>that businesses globally are starting to implement best practices in cyber risk management. Most businesses recognise the magnitude of cyber risk and many are shifting aspects of their approach to match the threat, and most are doing a good job in traditional cybersecurity, protecting the perimeter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Effective\ncyber risk management requires a comprehensive approach employing risk\nassessment, measurement, mitigation, transfer and planning. The optimal program\nwill depend on each company\u2019s unique risk profile and tolerance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This\naddress many of the common and most urgent aspects of cyber risk that\nbusinesses today are challenged with and should be viewed as signposts along\nthe path to building true cyber resilience. Nonetheless, the survey shows that\nthere remains a considerable gap between where cyber sits on the corporate risk\nagenda and the overall level of rigor and maturity of cyber risk management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many\nenterprises globally could benefit by applying strategic risk management\nprinciples to their cyber risk approach, supported by more expertise, resources\nand management attention as they build cyber resilience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Technology is dramatically transforming the global business environment, with continual advances in areas ranging from Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT) to data availability and Blockchain. Especially in an &#8216;Internet of Everything&#8217; era with digitally dependent supply chains and innovative technology, yesterday\u2019s practices and mindsets are not enough and may actually inhibit innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Optimising\nsecurity from the castle to the wider community is harder, but inevitable. It\nrequires a shift from solely focusing on enterprise security to embracing\nresponsibility for network security across the entire supply chain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nsurvey points to a number of best practices that the most cyber resilient firms\nemploy and which all firms should consider adopting:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Create\na strong cybersecurity culture with clear, shared standards for governance,\naccountability, resources and actions<\/li><li>Quantify\ncyber risk to drive better informed capital allocation decisions, enable\nperformance measurement and frame cyber risk in the same economic terms as\nother enterprise risks<\/li><li>Evaluate\nthe cyber risk implications of new technology as a continual and\nforward-looking process throughout the lifecycle of the technology<\/li><li>Manage\nsupply chain risk as a collective issue, recognising the need for trust and\nshared security standards across the entire network, including the company&#8217;s\ncyber impact on its partners<\/li><li>Pursue\nand support public-private partnerships around critical cyber risk issues that\ncan deliver stronger protections and baseline best practice standards for all<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>New\ntech increases exposure<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Security\nchallenges can manifest whenever new technology is integrated into business\ninfrastructure, bringing new and additional complexity to the company&#8217;s\ntechnology footprint. The risks and exposures presented by new technologies\nmust be weighed against the potential transformative business effects and risk\ntolerance varies both by industry and by individual company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Businesses\nare embracing technological innovation, and most don\u2019t see cyber risk as a\nbarrier. But assessment of new technology cyber risk is not as rigorous and\ncontinual as it should be. The number of Internet connected devices is\nestimated to be 75 billion by 2025. As the world moves closer to an \u2018Internet\nof Everything\u2019, the amount and variety of digital assets that are stored,\nprocessed, and shared by enterprises rises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even\ntraditional sectors such as manufacturing expect almost 50% of the products\nthey develop to be \u2018smart\u2019 or \u2018connected\u2019 in some way by 2020, opening up new\nrevenue streams in data-driven services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Supply\nchain risk<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In\nincreasingly interdependent digital supply chains, cyber risk needs to be a\ncollective responsibility. In a world of hyper-connected supply chains, there\nis a critical need for trust among partners; a lack of trust risks impeding\nbusiness performance and innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Every\nbusiness needs to understand, have confidence in, and play a role in the\nintegrity and security of the components and software of its digital supply\nchains. The concept of \u2018technological social responsibility\u2019 \u2014 the recognition\nand acknowledgement by each company of its role and cybersecurity obligations\nwithin the supply chain \u2014 is on the agenda for many industry leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But\nwhile many companies recognise the potential risks their supply chain partners\nmay pose to their own cyber posture, most don\u2019t fully appreciate the risk in\nreverse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Regulations\nand legislation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In\nrecent years, regulators globally have enacted numerous measures to hold\ncorporations and executives more directly accountable for ensuring effective\ncybersecurity and for keeping customers\u2019 data safe. Many of these regulations\nand legal frameworks require a greater degree of transparency from companies at\nall levels of their data handling activities, and in their cyber risk\nmanagement readiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According\nto the survey, government laws and regulations are less effective in helping\nbusinesses improve their cybersecurity posture compared to &#8216;soft&#8217; voluntary\nindustry standards and guidance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Cyber\ninvestments<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Effective\ncyber risk management requires quantitative risk expression. Although more\nbusinesses measure their cyber risks economically, there\u2019s a long way to go for\nall businesses to embrace this best practice, and then to apply that quantified\nmeasurement to drive sound cyber risk investment decisions. Investments in\ncybersecurity technology are rising quickly and far outpacing spending on cyber\ninsurance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nglobal cyber insurance market as measured by gross written premiums is forecast\nto be just under US$8 billion by 2020, compared to a US$124 billion global\ncybersecurity market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many\ncompanies focus their cyber risk management strategy on prevention by investing\nin technological frontline cyber defences. Meanwhile, spending on other tools\nand resources for cyber risk management, such as cyber insurance or event\nresponse training, remains a fraction of the technology budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This\nsuggests that many businesses continue to believe they can eliminate or manage\ntheir cyber risk primarily through technology, rather than through a\ncomprehensive range of planning, transfer, and response measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Best\npractices<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Best\npractice calls not for parity of spending, but an investment strategy that,\nreflecting a company&#8217;s unique risk profile and appetite, leverages the\ncomplementary roles of technology and insurance to deter cyberattacks where\npossible and transfer the risk of those that cannot be prevented. However, the\nemphasis on cybersecurity spending and technology over other measures reveals\nthat many businesses have not yet embraced this truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ownership\nof cyber governance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite\ncyber risk being ranked as a high priority, governance and ownership of it\ngenerally does not align with that ranking. Those who should be focused on\ncybersecurity are not, IT and information security roles continue to be seen as\nthe primary owners of cyber risk management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Businesses\nmust build cyber resilience, approaching cyber risk as a critical threat that,\nwith vigilance and application of best practices, can be managed confidently.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The rate at which digital technology is evolving and disrupting traditional business models, cyber risks seem to evolve even faster. John McLoughlin, cybersecurity expert and CEO at J2 Software, tells Intelligent CIO that business leaders are now clearly recognising the critical nature of cyber threats and starting to identify and embrace best practices to mitigate [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":31214,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4950,5,328,136,6,13],"tags":[386,676,1696,1413,388,11818,2874,155,390,1298,4746],"class_list":["post-31213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","category-enterprise-security","category-features","category-industry-expert","category-insights","category-top-stories","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-blockchain","tag-cyber-risk","tag-cyber-threat","tag-cybersecurity","tag-intelligent-cio","tag-internet-of-everything","tag-internet-of-things","tag-iot","tag-j2-software","tag-john-mcloughlin"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31213"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31218,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31213\/revisions\/31218"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}