Cybersecurity is the top threat facing all organizations in the world. Authorities such as the U.S. Commerce Secretary and the Chairman and CEO of IBM have publicly emphasized this fact recently. Still, many organizations have no executive-level cybersecurity officer or enterprise-wide visibility campaign, which is courting disaster. Over $5 billion was paid to recover data hijacked by cyber criminals in 2017, 15 times as much as in 2015! Cyber crime will be costing the world $6 TRILLION annually by 2021 according to one estimate. Cybersecurity for Non-IT Executives explodes the myths that are giving the world's boardrooms a false sense of security and shows executives where to find the information to protect their organizations before the rogue nations of cyber criminals put it out of existence.
Hill Consulting, Inc.®
Gregory F. Hill, President
Hardware, Software and Security Systems Consulting
Cybersecurity for Non-IT Executives (2018)
Security Planning for Critical Infrastructure (2014)
Within businesses, security issues, and their consequences for the general public, saturate the news. With large organizations, even those with substantial budgets, well financed IT/IS departments and resources dedicated to system security, often do not do an appreciably better job than smaller enterprises with fewer resources and either no plan or a largely ineffective one.
Most recently eBay and Target are alarming examples, and although those garner the most attention, as destructive both financially and to public peace of mind, the area of greatest concern is largely overlooked. These are the entities Homeland Security defines as Critical Infrastructure, “the backbone of our nation’s economy, security and health.”
This paper will examine the threats to which these types of organizations are vulnerable, as well as the common mistakes being made that increase their susceptibility to the risks. Poorly planned and ineffectively implemented security measures may result in unintended consequences such as the loss of productivity and business confidentiality will also be examined. Finally, a template for developing an effective security plan will be included.