Risk Meets Reality
Editor’s Note: This is the latest in a series from the Poole College of Management and the Enterprise Risk Management Initiative that taps experts from across NC State to explore societal issues through the lens of risk management.
The scope and cost of cyberattacks are staggering. Global losses from data breaches are measured in the hundreds of billions, and the average breach costs an organization $4.4 million, according to IBM.
But the cost of cyber risk is only one part of the picture. Cyberattacks affect every industry; in the last few months alone, they’ve brought European air travel to a standstill and crippled Jaguar Land Rover’s automobile production. Those were malicious attacks, but unintentional cybersecurity breaches are a major source of risk, too.
“It’s inevitable,” said Laurie Williams, Goodnight Distinguished University Professor of Security Sciences and director of NC State’s Secure Software Supply Chain Center (S3C2). “There are vulnerabilities, and you’re going to have to react to them.”
S3C2 and the Wolfpack Security and Privacy Research Lab (WSPR) —both part of the computer science…
