9/11 One Year Later: Firms Brace for Cyber Attacks

One year after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, most security experts polled by CSO Magazine said [1] they consider the threat of electronic attacks a greater concern than the risk of future physical attacks. Nearly half expect a major cyber attack by a terrorist organization within the next year.

Thanks to the foresight and hard work of security workers everywhere, the nation is better prepared today than it was a year ago. Key risk management techniques:

• Creation of a position known as the Chief Security Officer (CSO).
  
• Use of insurance for losses caused by cyber crimes.
  
• Holding technology vendors accountable for the reliability of their security offerings.
  
• Exploring new technology, especially biometrics (retina-scans, fingerprint scans, etc.) Only 9% of the CSOs surveyed have already adopted biometrics, but 48% plan to do so in the future.

The survey also probed that backgrounds of today's CSOs and found the vast majority (88%) have previous work experience in information technology, though significant minorities also have experience in fields such as security consulting, military and engineering. Interestingly, these CSOs also say the greatest risks of damage and economic losses may come from internal rather than external sources. Fully 53% believe current employees pose a greater threat to their company's technology infrastructure than former employees or external persons.

-Rosemary Schlank