Biden’s cybersecurity summit represents a call-to-action for businesses
September 17, 2021
President Biden met last month with the CEOs of major corporations like Apple, Amazon, IBM, Google, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase to discuss our nation’s growing cybersecurity challenges. In the meeting, he called on leaders to increase efforts to battle cybercriminals, stating that both the public and private sectors must address cybersecurity. But the government’s interest in lax cybersecurity also includes a Senate-approved $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill with a $2 billion earmark for cybersecurity initiatives. The bill still awaits House approval.
As the federal government lays down the gauntlet for a more focused approach to cybersecurity, we wonder how businesses will respond. If history serves as an indicator, it’s clear that the private sector must do more than it currently has. For context, the famed Target breach in 2013 represented the benchmark for such incidents. But since then, there have been countless incidents across industries, such as SolarWinds and Colonial Pipeline. Just recently, T-Mobile experienced its fourth notable breach in as many years.
With each passing year, security breaches get more sophisticated and expensive and impact more people. IBM’s 2021 “Cost of a Data Breach” report found that the average incident cost organizations more than $4 million in 2020, a record high. But more concerning is that it took organizations 287 days to detect and contain a breach on average—a week longer than the year before. T-Mobile’s breach stole personal information from more than 54 million customers, according to the latest tally. As cybercriminals continue to stay ahead of the curve with inventive ways to exploit new vulnerabilities, we must ask ourselves if organizations are doing everything within their power to stop—or at least slow them.