- Back in 2021, hackers took over the computers
of a US company
and for six days shut down a pipeline
for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.
Trucks and planes that deliver products
couldn't be refueled,
and tens of millions of people couldn't buy gas.
That was a powerful lesson for all of us
about why cybersecurity
has to be a central part of our digital transformation.
So let's look at some of the threats
that we need to prepare for
and some strategies for dealing with them.
First, there's the risk
that your data could be stolen.
Cyber thieves can steal product formulas,
and engineering designs
and they can steal personal and financial information
about your employees or your customers.
That data can then be sold to your competitors
or to other criminals who use it
to commit financial crimes
like blackmail and fraud.
Next, there's a risk of losing data
or at least losing access to it due
a failure of technology.
Data can be totally lost
during natural disasters,
such as floods and fires
but even losing access
to information temporarily is dangerous.
For many companies, losing access
to their data for more than a few days
can be enough to drive them to bankruptcy.
The biggest concern for many of us these days comes
from intentional damage
from attacks on our computers.
I think about the vulnerabilities
that hackers exploit in terms
of three categories.
The first is designed-in.
Designed-in issues are called zero-day vulnerabilities.
These are weaknesses or mistakes in the code
when a new piece of software is first released.
Over time, software companies identify these vulnerabilities
and rewrite programs
to fix or to patch the problems.
So the best way to protect against zero-day vulnerabilities
is to keep all of our software up to date.
Next are brought-in vulnerabilities,
including viruses, malicious software or malware,
and software configuration changes.
For these vulnerabilities,
the best protections are software tools,
like antivirus software,
combined with educating our users
about threats like phishing emails
and limiting their ability
to change settings and access sensitive files.
Finally, forced-in vulnerabilities
are direct attacks by hackers,
such as guessing passwords
or by stealing a computer or breaking into a network.
One of the best ways
to protect against forced-in vulnerabilities
is to require users to have complex passwords
and to change them frequently.
We can get stronger protection
by including biometric tools,
like fingerprint scanners
and facial recognition tools
and we can combine two or more methods
to implement multifactor authentication.
Last but certainly not least,
physical security procedures
are needed to prevent hackers from getting direct access
to our computers and to our networks.
If you're interested in learning more
about cybersecurity, there are a lot
of great courses available here in the library.
The important thing to remember is that our customers
and our suppliers depend on us
and we all depend on information technology.
So we need to take cybersecurity into account
as we deploy new solutions
and move forward through our digital transformation.