Cybersecurity: Winning the Battle on Two Fronts

Cybersecurity critical to fulfilling potential of digitisation

Cybersecurity, in general, is a must-have for delivering on the sustainability and resource efficiency promise of digital technology. This is because cybersecurity protects critical assets from harm and those assets are becoming more and more digitised and interconnected. According to some estimates, over 40 billion devices are expected to be connected to the Internet by 2020 (ABI research). This includes resource-intensive assets in energy, utilities, agriculture, manufacturing etc. This trend is driven by the promise of huge efficiencies delivered by the bridging of the physical and digital worlds. However the flip side is that these connected assets are also becoming increasingly vulnerable and exposed to cyberattacks, which sabotage the frictionless operation of the assets and hence undermine the efficiency of these technologies. It is for this reason that cybersecurity is a must-have to tap the full efficiency potential brought by digitisation and connectivity. 

Massive cost of cybercrime

This vulnerability is highlighted by the high profile security breaches that are rarely out of the news these days. Not only are they highly damaging and disruptive to international businesses, they are unimaginably costly. Research by accountants Grant Thornton in 2015 revealed that the total cost of attacks globally was estimated to be at least US$315bn over the past 12 months, a figure they based on estimates of total business lost. McAfee, one of the leaders in cyber security, quotes at the very least a similar figure in a 2014 report on the global impact of cybercrime. These are huge numbers, meaningful for any economy, and there appears to be no slowing in the exponential growth of these crimes. 
Whilst the cost of implementing a comprehensive cyberdefence strategy can be significant, this pales into insignificance when you compare it to the cost of loss of business including lost reputation, a loss of trust and permanently damaged relationships with your customers? There is no doubt that US retailer Target’s catastrophic 2013 cyberattack, which led to customers’ credit card details being made public, had a far more lasting effect than simply the immediate cost of corrective and restorative action. The benefits behind effective cyberdefence become glaringly obvious when comparing the cost to Target of installing FireEye malware detection appliances at US$1.6m with the cost of the subsequent breach, highlighted in a 2014 Bloomberg article. In 2015, Target revealed the data breach cost it US$262m.