The biggest problem seems to be that businesses are still not taking cybercrime seriously enough, says Ian Buchanan: ‘It’s evolving all the time. The bad guys are getting more sophisticated, the threats are getting more sophisticated. They’re now starting to use, allegedly, machine learning and artificial intelligence, which escalates the threat and that’s why people have to take it seriously at all levels.
‘This is not just an IT risk, this is a business risk and when it comes to governance in organisations this needs to be an agenda item at board level.’
Cyber attackers aren’t just part-time hackers in hoodies, they are now serious organised criminal gangs and even nation states. ‘It’s really important that organisations take it seriously because it’s just going to get worse and worse as we go into the future.’
So what’s Mr Buchanan’s best advice for businesses?
‘Threat actors use rational economic business models themselves – they are there to make money. If you make it difficult for them to achieve their end, which is to steal money, then they’ll simply go somewhere else. So part of risk management thinking needs to be about how do I…
