Companies including utilities, banks and phone carriers would have to spend almost nine times more on cybersecurity to prevent a digital Pearl Harbor from plunging millions into darkness, paralyzing the financial system or cutting communications, a Bloomberg Government study found.
Spies, criminals and hacker-activists are stepping up assaults on U.S. government and corporate systems, spurring efforts by Congress and President Obama to shield infrastructure essential to U.S. national and economic security, such as power grids and water-treatment plants.
Hardening those systems would require a significant investment given the increasing stealth and sophistication of hackers, according to Lawrence Ponemon, chairman of the Ponemon Institute, a research firm that collaborated with Bloomberg on the study released last week in Washington.
“The consequences of a successful attack against critical infrastructure makes these cost increases look like chump change,” Ponemon said in an interview. “It would put people into the Dark Ages.”
The study, described by Ponemon as the first to place a price tag on cybersecurity, is based on interviews with technology managers from 172 U.S. organizations in six industries and the government. Survey respondents were granted anonymity owing to the sensitivity of discussing cybersecurity weaknesses.
See more at: http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20120206/BIZ07/302069978/1031/BIZ
I'm not a hacker or even a genius with a PC, merely interested in the 'growth industry' of cyber, or information, security and will share any stories and news items I find on the subject.
No comments:
Post a Comment