Feature
TECHNOLOGY
Once more into the breach Cyber attacks can be a nightmare for businesses to prevent, detect and deal with, so why don’t organisations put more effort into getting ahead of the game? BY LIZ BURY
S
o great was the shock of the Talk Talk cyber breach that although it occurred a full five months ago, it’s still very much on the tip of cyber risk experts’ tongues. The incident was in many ways the stuff of cyber breach nightmares: the hacked customer data, the lack of clear information about exactly what had happened, the CEO Dido Harding rushing between media interviews trying to calm the situation down, the scorn and ridicule on social media, and the tumbling share price. No wonder the memory of it still sends a shiver down most risk professional’s spines. And yet, despite this shocking example of the very real risks of doing business in a cyber-age, many UK companies remain unprepared for a breach. It’s not for lack of trying by the UK government, which has worked hard to propel cyber risk up the agenda of UK businesses. Unveiling his new £1.9bn national cyber plan last November, Chancellor George Osborne said: “The starting point must be that every British company is a target, that every British network will be attacked, and that cyber crime is not something that
14
Above: Talk Talk’s CEO Dido Harding was thrown into the spotlight during a high-profile hack on the business.
Enterprise Risk
