Cyber security

Letter November 29, 2018
Cyber threats continue to mount

LAHORE: Cyber threats continue to mount. In the first half of 2018, as many as 945 incidents of data breach led to the compromise of over 4.5 billion data records. These records include credit cards, social security numbers and other types of personal information.

With the grave state of cyber security, it makes one wonder about the near future. Currently massive funding has been flooding into the robotics industry, self-driving cars and even self-flying planes.

Unfortunately, if we are not able to secure current critical security systems, how much peril will we be putting ourselves into when a rogue cyber terrorist takes control of an autonomous vehicle?

A company may be able to survive a breach that impacts customer data or personal information; however, when lives are at stake, it is not too far of a stretch of the imagination to conclude the horrors that could await us in the near future. As recently as last year, it was proven that naval ships were able to be hacked and steered off course.

If things do not change in the attitudes of business leaders, cyber security professionals and consumers, the world could become a very scary place.

While investments in new and innovative technologies are certainly a positive thing, they must be tempered with caution and additional investments in cyber security architecture, training and processes that are more likely to prevent and stop cyber criminals from compromising critical systems. In the past cyber security may have been a luxury. In the future it appears it will be a necessity.

Shifa Qasim

Published in The Express Tribune, November 29th, 2018.

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