Cyber-security suffers from poor implementation of best practices and can be addressed through automation of certain services and sparing money for hiring skilled cyber security talent, says Kelly Bissell, MD of Global Accenture Security.
Bissell believes end-to-end cyber-security needs to be implemented by businesses to deter increasing cyber-attacks.
In an interview given to The Economic Times, Bissel said that end-to-end cyber-security isn’t present in most businesses and the reasons behind this are lack of funds available to smaller businesses, lack of skilled cyber-security talent and poor implementation of biometrics.
Highlighting that cyber-security is not a technology risk but a business risk, he said that boards should discuss and implement tough cyber-security standards so that repeated incidents of cyber-attacks do not cause potential loss of business and financial loss. This is especially significant since the GDPR, which will take effect from next year, will impose fines of either 4% of a company’s annual worldwide turnover or €20 million, whichever will be higher, if the company fails to secure confidential customer data from cyber-attacks.
Thanks to the new rules, the total costs incurred by such firms because of their failure to protect customer data may go up to £122bn from a mere £1.4bn in 2015. The message behind the new regulations is for large firms to either pull up their socks or face impending financial ruin and loss of face.
