Facing up to the cybersecurity challenge


In the latest issue of McKinsey Quarterly James Kaplan identifies a perfect storm of factors that are conspiring to make cybersecurity a major business challenge.

  • Stakeholders expect more ‘openness'.  Increased demands for mobile/smartphone access present new types of security threats
  • More corporate value is to be found online - making it a more attractive target for cybercriminals
  • Interconnected supply chains making extended networks vulnerable to weak links in the chain
  • Increasingly sophisticated cybercriminals and malware
Organisations need a new mindset to tackle cybersecurity challenges. This includes moving from a focus of 'protecting the perimeter' to identifying, and protecting, their most valuable intellectual assets.  Most critical of all is to acknowledge that cybersecurity is at best a constant battle rather than a one-off problem that can be tackled and 'solved'.