Self-Protecting Data – Emerging Market
My grandfather was a simple man without a formal university education, but he had wisdom. The world has not changed in many ways since his day. Today the world is profoundly similar although new risks exist that he never imagined. He was very vocal on professing safety to his precocious grandson, who seemed hell-bent to own fast cars and motorcycles. He used to say, “if you can imagine it, you can prevent it.” That is sage advice. Non-natural disasters are not accidents; they are preventable. Consider only a few from the past 40 years, Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, Corona Virus, Boeing 737 Max, and data breaches. All were preventable.
A recent Cisco survey reported that 71 percent of Americans are worried about having their personal or financial information hacked. Sixty-seven percent of Americans are concerned about being a victim of identity theft. 1.76 billion records have been stolen or leaked in 2020 alone.
In my grandfather’s day, data was just numbers and letters. Today, data is who we are. It reveals our behavior, character, loyalties, secrets, and intentions. In the wrong hands’ data becomes a weapon, betraying its owner. Our challenge as a cybersecurity industry is to restore confidentiality, save lives, ensure privacy, and promote national prosperity. To achieve our goal, we must understand the motivations and economy of cybercriminals.