Looking Forward
The news for security from the 2020 World Economic Forum Risks Report is really a simple as it gets, the 4th industrial revolution (4IR) is upon us, and the opportunities and benefits for the world are amazing and here to stay. The report indicates that “50% of the world’s population is now online” with an “additional 1 Million people a day joining the internet”.
The current pandemic aside, the future looks amazing for precision medicine, drones, AI, autonomous vehicles and the Internet of things. For security leaders, these revelations bring with them some of the realities of these digital machines including the increased cyber risks and yet to be understood risks of using them in the cumulative formation. This cumulative formation dramatically increases the overall attack surface the bad guys get to exploit, which includes all the new neophyte internet users.
Geopolitical and socio-economic trends like nationalism, privacy & the digital arm’s race all increase the intensity at which the world’s members fracture financially and increase the gap between the haves and the have nots. Jurisdictions with high levels of education and limited economic opportunity for individuals drive the motivation for global crime. These “have not” locations are often some of the most innovative in developing and driving cybercrime because when the need for something becomes imperative, people are forced to find ways of getting it.
The WEF predicts the Internet will have the 3rd largest economy by 2021, but the underlying proposition that bears considering in this, is that this only measures the buy side opportunity, and conveniently leaves out the sell side risk. Growing the economy is fine, but with that growth comes the increased risk, of the internet’s complexity and dark web underbelly. The growing attack surface and increasing interconnectivity complexity is intensifying dramatically the business and individual risk. This increase in risk has real impacts to real people who use this technology and come in contact with those who would seek to do harm within the ecosphere, whether physical or virtual.
As Past Presidents of ASIS International and active participants in SIA, ISSA, ISACA, the GSRMA, and many more, we have spent a considerable number of years collaborating on Enterprise Security Risk Management concepts which bring the Physical and Logical Security programs together across the enterprise. We whole heartedly believe now is the time to renew the collaboration in all organizations between the Physical Security, Logical security and other Risk facing leaders to position our organizations to be the best prepared for 4IR.
Read the full report:
https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-global-risks-report-2020
Ray O’Hara – EVP, AS Solution
Dave Tyson – SVP, Apollo Information Systems