Below is what Robert Huber, Chief Security Officer at Tenable, has to say on WEF’s 2021 Global Risk Report.
“Cybersecurity failure ranks the fourth highest “clear and present danger” in the World Economic Forum’s Global Risk Report 2021. This should come as no surprise as our global reliance on all things technology went into overdrive in 2020.
Computational power was instrumental in the research and development of vaccines. Operational technology within critical infrastructure continues to underpin the cold supply chain and logistics, facilitating the safe delivery and storage of vaccine vials.
While the power of technology was on full display in 2020, so too were the potential pitfalls. The issue with this kind of reliance is that, if we continue to steam ahead without first ensuring the security of this technology, the threats to our digital economy and very way of life will take hold.
In 2020, we saw that threat actors weren’t afraid to take aim and exploit weaknesses in security practices for financial and even political gain. While regulation and globally accepted frameworks can be effective in raising the importance of cybersecurity efforts, alone neither is enough. Any cybersecurity initiative has to look beyond meeting minimum standard requirements to address the actual risks organisations face. It must elevate cybersecurity’s role as a strategic business function and critical enterprise risk.” — Robert Huber, Chief Security Officer, Tenable.