Forget Ipads, Facebook and even the latest video game, Call of Duty-Black Ops, which sold $300 million plus in its first day, as hot companies and can’t lose businesses. They have nothing on cyber crime. At the recent Security 500 Conference, Tom Mahlik, former Section Chief for the FBI’s Domain Section Counter Intelligence Division, pointed out that not only are U.S. businesses and government agencies losing north of one trillion dollars from cyber crime globally (yes, about 8 percent of the U.S. economy); but that most victims are not aware of it and do little to defend against it.
Tom’s facts are backed up by the recent Security 500 Survey that identified only 20 percent of Security 500 organizations are managing cyber at the enterprise level. While many Security 500 organizations defend against cyber crime at the departmental level (within IT, R&D or brand units), it is the lack of an enterprise-wide strategy that creates easily exploited weaknesses.