3 ms·

Executives don't realize that it can end a company until it does. Apple gets it. Google gets it. Facebook gets it. But very few other companies do. Cyber vulner

Executives don't realize that it can end a company until it does. Apple gets it. Google gets it. Facebook gets it. But very few other companies do. Cyber vulnerabilities killed Nortel back in the day. Huawei got not just designs, but details about bids, key people, everything.

thephyber 9y ago
Maybe 5-10 years ago companies didn't realize it. I think every major corporation has started to consider that kind of scenario now. Smaller companies may still delude themselves into thinking they aren't targets, but they probably are much less capable than big companies of investing in the required preparations to prevent those attacks. The "black swan" events aren't costless to mitigate. In fact, they are extremely expensive. And just like there can be a black swan for cyberattacks, there can be a black swan like a terrorist attack (like companies in World Trade Center Towers 1 and 2), a massive natural disaster (think businesses in Puerto Rico right now), massive electrical outages (say an EMP or simply just Enron malfeasance), etc. Spending to protect against and mitigate all possible black swans approaches infinity and doesn't every pay off until the extremely rare but extremely impactful event ever happens. And in cyber security, you never know because your defenses prevented it before it ever started.
- 3pt14159 9y ago
  If they were doing as you describe they would at the very least keep their versions of Windows updated and they would enable things like two-factor authentication and TLS for their email. They don't. We're not talking expensive to prevent black swan, we're talking routine defences against white swans.
zhengyi13 9y ago
Has this been written about anywhere? If there's a document that covers this as a case of industrial espionage, I'd love to read it.
- 3pt14159 9y ago
  Yes. Read the book Cyberspies it covers this and other events.

thephyber 9y ago

Maybe 5-10 years ago companies didn't realize it. I think every major corporation has started to consider that kind of scenario now. Smaller companies may still delude themselves into thinking they aren't targets, but they probably are much less capable than big companies of investing in the required preparations to prevent those attacks. The "black swan" events aren't costless to mitigate. In fact, they are extremely expensive. And just like there can be a black swan for cyberattacks, there can be a black swan like a terrorist attack (like companies in World Trade Center Towers 1 and 2), a massive natural disaster (think businesses in Puerto Rico right now), massive electrical outages (say an EMP or simply just Enron malfeasance), etc. Spending to protect against and mitigate all possible black swans approaches infinity and doesn't every pay off until the extremely rare but extremely impactful event ever happens. And in cyber security, you never know because your defenses prevented it before it ever started.

3pt14159 9y ago
If they were doing as you describe they would at the very least keep their versions of Windows updated and they would enable things like two-factor authentication and TLS for their email. They don't. We're not talking expensive to prevent black swan, we're talking routine defences against white swans.

zhengyi13 9y ago

Has this been written about anywhere? If there's a document that covers this as a case of industrial espionage, I'd love to read it.

3pt14159 9y ago
Yes. Read the book Cyberspies it covers this and other events.