In our never ending search for good news on the cybersecurity front we ran across this report from the Index of Cybersecurity, which surveys the sentiments of security professionals about the current state of cybersecurity. It comes as no surprise that the report suggests perceptions about security issues are “worsening across the board.”
One of the more interesting findings was that survey respondents identified media and public perception as the fastest growing risk. In all likelihood, that reflects both the unending stream of stories recounting the latest cyber attack as well as the very high profile attack on OPM which dominated headlines and reinforced the belief that China is aggressively attacking the United States and is doing so with a sense of relative impunity. Phishing and social engineering trailed closely behind in the sense of rising threats category, and those threats are also part of the fabric of much of the reporting on the OPM breach and other recent attacks.
It appears there is mounting frustration over the sense that much of the US economy is being treated as a cyber piñata, continually being whacked until its data treasures are spilled. There is a growing chorus of voices urging the United States to act in a way which demonstrates that it is unwilling to accept attacks by foreign governments of a certain magnitude, and will retaliate forcefully. We can expect this consideration to become a more dominant part of American political discourse when Congress returns, and to spill over into the presidential campaign messaging. Stay tuned.
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By Tom Davis, SDI Cyber Risk Practice
SDI #CyberTuesday offers insights and commentary on cyber risk management by SDI’s trusted cybersecurity, privacy and data security experts, skilled practitioners whose decades of experience working for governments and corporations around the world distinguish them as strategists and crisis managers.
You can view previous blog posts on cyber risk management here.
August 18, 2015