Cyber security, or rather ‘cybersecurity’, is the word of 2015, according to Fortune.
“If “plastics” was the word for 1967, “cybersecurity” may be it for 2015. In the age of the mega-hack, companies are scrambling to protect themselves,” Fortune stated in an article published on the 3rd of September 2015.
Indeed, with the various high profile hacks that have dominated newspaper pages – not just in 2015 but in the 12 months or so preceding it – cyber security has been thrust firmly into the limelight. Apple’s iCloud, dating website Ashley Madison and Sony Pictures are among the victims that have had to deal with costly data breaches, which in turn has sparked fear among companies around the world that they could be the next target.
According to a survey of Fortune 500 CEOs, cyber security was ranked second on the list of the main challenges their organisation is facing today, coming in just behind rapidly changing technology.
However, while Fortune 500 CEOs are acutely aware of the risks posed by cyber criminals, the same cannot necessarily be said of UK businesses; as a Ploughshare blog recently reported, a mere two per cent of UK businesses have cyber insurance, which provides important protection in case a company should be the subject of cyber crime.
With no financial safety net in place to protect them against what can be hugely costly data breaches, Sarah Stephens, head of cyber at global insurance broker JLT, likened UK organisations’ approach to cyber security to driving a car that does not have airbags.
Evidently, therefore, there is a disconnect between the prevalence and awareness of cyber security and what business leaders are doing to address it. This trend will be need to be reversed lest cyber security become ‘the word’ of 2016 as well.