More than half of US top executives fear not only serious disruption of their own operations, but also the impact of cyber attacks on national infrastructure, a study has revealed.
Most of the C-level professionals surveyed by security firm RedSeal believe a co-ordinated assault launched by sophisticated cyber criminals could wreak ongoing havoc on business operations, cause considerable harm to a brand, and potentially affect related companies or even entire industries.
Many also said that in the networked economy, containing the problems caused by a sustained network attack will be very difficult. They fear that a major network disruption at a single company or network could disrupt infrastructure at a local, national and even global level.
“As this research makes clear, securing the network infrastructure to ensure ongoing business operations is not an abstract concern – it’s a vital issue because a successful attack will have devastating and even far-reaching consequences,” said RedSeal chairman and CEO Ray Rothrock.
“A co-ordinated, sophisticated and large-scale assault will not stay within the walls of the company being attacked. It could easily trigger a domino effect and cause widespread disruption, reaching companies in other sectors and even the national grid,” he said.
The survey of more than 350 C-level executives, including CISOs, showed 74% acknowledge that cyber attacks on networks of organisations can cause “serious damage or disruption”, and 21% admit to fears of “significant damage or disruption”.
Almost 80% said such attacks could inflict “serious impacts to business profitability and growth”, and bring about “serious brand damage”, while 45% were also concerned that such attacks could lead to a “big hit on employee productivity”. More than 43% predict business downtime, while more than 41% fear “internal/organisational disruption or chaos”.
Asked what other areas might be affected by the “resulting ripple effects of cyber attacks on one network”, 64% cited “further business-related security vulnerabilities”. More than half (56%) went further, citing “national vulnerabilities”, and 59% agreed with the possibility of a security domino effect.
More than half the respondents (52%) singled out “defence systems” as being potentially affected by a cyber criminal incident or data breach, while 45% cited “border security”, and 59% said such attacks could affect “economic security”.
View the original content and more from this author here: http://ift.tt/1zVDPAs
from critical infrastructure alliance http://ift.tt/1zSRSGE
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment