The Plague of Cybercrime: Is There Any Hope

This is a ''watershed year'' for cybercrime, according to a new survey on the topic. Yet many companies are falling short in their efforts to battle it. The state of corporate cybercrime protection is mixed at best. Government agencies and boards of directors are taking an increased role in the adoption of good preventive practices, according to a new survey by PwC, CSO, the U.S. Secret Service, and the CERT Division of the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. On the other hand, many companies still aren't fully aware of the threat presented by hackers, terrorists and foreign governments. Shockingly, one in five of the surveyed executives said they aren't worried about the risk that cybercrime poses to their supply chains. Even some of the more forward-thinking organizations haven't progressed very far on the maturity curve. On this episode, we discuss the implications of the survey with PwC partner Quentin Orr. He outlines the various kinds of cyber threats, addresses the critical issue of third-party risks, and reports on the level and types of corporate investment in people, process and systems. Finally, he answers the key question: Given the sophistication and persistence of cyber-criminals today, is there any hope?