Are You Ready For Cyber-Crime? Probably Not!

Please enjoy the thoughts and musings of our friend, supporter, and long-time contributor Art van Bodegraven Jr., who passed away on June 18, 2017. Art was a prolific writer and had amassed a collection of unpublished blog posts he had planned to run well into the future. To honor his memory, we will continue to post these remaining blogs as he had intended. If you’ve been a fan of The Art of Art blog, check out our tribute.

 

We tend to think of cyber-crime as white-collar fraud.  Fake IRS returns, imaginary credit cards, creative accounts, check fraud involving friends and neighbors, churches and service organizations.

But, businesses need to do more, to protect against risk.  Malicious marketing campaigns; disruptions caused by privacy breaches and botnets.  Customer data and trade secrets are at risk.

And, as IoT devices proliferate, the related vulnerabilities grow exponentially, especially as the mini-technology gets integrated farther back in the chain.

Recognize that many industries have been affected by cyber-crime.  Steal shamelessly from their techniques, and help manage risk through the experience of others.

Basically, your responsibility is to take a measured risk-based approach.  Are you vulnerable to attack, or worse?  Is your intellectual property safe?  Is it in the hands of the Indians or Chinese, both notorious for the theft of ideas?

Be constantly vigilant.  Is AI a vulnerability, and a risk for threats in an interconnected supply chain?

Be prepared; be resilient.  Know how long recovery might take, and who has the resources to remediate?

Boy Scout time; be prepared.  And, be on top of your game.  Your customer base is at stake, as is its integrity.