I talk to a lot of Chief Technology Officers and Chief Information Officers and all of them have one main concern – security.
They tell me cybersecurity is essential – that data is as valuable to their businesses as the products they sell. But many businesses are still figuring out how best to respond to this challenge.
In fact, a recent survey shows that nearly half of large companies are re-evaluating their security standards – but that leaves 51% that are not.
That’s why we published Cybersecurity Insights. It’s first in a series that highlights the threats we face, suggestions for countering them and some of the best practices that we have adopted at AT&T to protect our own operations.
The goal is to help business leaders understand where threats originate and how to adopt the best strategies for today’s fast-paced security environment. But everyone should read it.
The AT&T network carries more than 100 petabytes of data traffic on an average business day and security is at the core of everything we do. That puts us in a unique position to suggest best practices to elevate strategic security decisions.
Just as one example, our Security Operations Center has seen a dramatic 458% increase in scans testing the vulnerability of connected devices that are transforming the enterprise landscape.
I don’t have to tell you how critical this is – the costs from cybersecurity attacks are enormous. Consider this:
- The Center for Strategic and International Studies puts the cost of cyberattacks to the world economy at around $445 billion or almost 1% of global income. That’s more than the national income of most nations and governments.
- Businesses suffered 43 million security incidents in 2014, an increase of 48% over the previous year and equal to some 117,000 incoming attacks daily.
- The average financial loss for just one cybersecurity incident was $2.7 million, up 34% from a year earlier.
The mobile revolution has meant endless possibilities for businesses to become more effective and efficient.
At AT&T, we connect everything from Uber drivers to shipping containers, farm equipment and pallets – the Internet of Things.
Industry analysts predict that by 2020 anywhere from 20 to 50 billion “things” will be connected. There are now 25 million connected devices on the AT&T wireless network alone.
But to realize the full potential of this connected society, security has to be top of mind. It’s not just an IT issue – it’s everyone’s responsibility from the C-suite on down.
You can download the report at AT&T Cybersecurity Report.
I hope it will give you some perspective on the challenges we all face and how businesses can make the best decisions to make the connected world safer for everyone.
