Peter Hacker

The bisecting challenges of geopolitical tensions, climate change, supply chain scarcity and economic turmoil loom larger than ever on the global stage, handing over political leaders and top executives an unparalleled balancing act.

Whether by chance or consciously, since 2019, our challenges such as Pandemics, Geopolitical Conflicts, Climate Change, Equality Debate and Non-Kinetic Warfare (‘Cyber’) have not only caused a fractured world, but have also allowed Politicians, Boards and Senior Stakeholders learn important lessons for their sustainability, equality, innovation and digital strategies.

Foremost, no doubt, socially conscious investing has been on all our minds, and already taken off with a focus on the environmental, diversity and social justice postures of a potential investment targets. However, surprisingly, it is rather rare to see ESG investments aligned with Cyber Resilience to foster digital trust which is a key driver of a company’s success story, brand and reputation.

We are still at the beginning of the digital age. However, we do well to treat future opportunities for companies to balance ESG investments with digital trust challenges. Thanks to unprecedented, global networking and interconnection, malware, codes and software offer new means of power, violence and ethical challenges. Simultaneously, our society is evolving into a mega-computer promoting growth, equality, sustainability and better understanding our customers, but this ambitious outcome
comes at a price. The question remains, are we (as individual or society) prepared to pay it?

As leaders strive to ensure security and equality for their populations and employees, they must also indulge with obligations to digital trust requesting resilience and international climate accords, mandating reductions in carbon emissions, new ways of leaving (‘smart cities’), driving (‘autonomous’) and increased cyber security concerns. This dainty balance calls for a path forward that strengthen use of technology and innovation without pulling out of on climate change, equality and ethical targets. It is an exciting time within a known unknown world triggering a strong requirement to act beyond the obvious.

In my humble view, Digital Trust means not just aligning ESG ratings with key factors such as network security or privacy, but successful, in-depth collaboration examples go far beyond ESG and Equality ratings and are built around sustainable Resilience fostering an out-side-the-box-minded thought process and behavior.

Today, unfortunately, it is still rare for companies to align ESG investments with cyber and privacy — even though cyber and privacy can be a key factor in ESG ratings. In fact, the opportunities from collaboration among cyber, privacy and ESG leaders go far beyond ratings and will enter any industry shortly. When leaders work together in the right way, they can help turn all three programs into a
strategic and operational differentiator for a brand and reputation — based on trust. Trust in a Country, its Society, Corpora)ons, Organizations enhances trust in their Data, Processes, Applications and Systems that ultimately triggers and fosters increased reputational, branding value and higher stock markets.

Nearly all your stakeholders – whether clients, employees, analysts, investors or regulators – exponentially want to know that a country, its organizations or corporations are protecting data and

privacy rights as well as supporting environmental sustainability, social progress, equality and top-notch governance. If we don’t address these demands, we will end on the back foot rather sooner than later.

Five years ago, Cyber Security was not in front of minds of most boards. 10 years ago, most boards even did not know what the term meant. Today most boards are paying attention, some more than others. People are starting to realize whatever this thing is, and what it means. Chief Executive Officer can get fired.

Any Company or Director can become victim of Cybercrime at any time. It’s just a matter of ‘WHEN AND NOT IF’ an attack occurs. If you want to survive a catastrophic cyber incident in today’s world, you better think outside the classic IT–Security box, understand your fiduciary duties and stress test in real terms your response plan and incident partners. Cybercrime is a business and not just a technical issue. The enterprise is at risk if not handled appropriately.

Whether by chance or consciously, the ‘real viruses'(Covid‐19),allow companies and risk teams to learn important lessons for their cyber security strategy. Attacks can also affect companies whose systems run current, regularly updated and properly patched software. Certain malware shows how important it is to restrict administrator privileges. A simple way is ‘leasing’ privileges so that employees who need them only have access to admin rights for a certain period of time.

We live in a fascinating time, in which the only constant is change. In some cases, the change rates are already beyond our ability to keep up and respond effectively. We would do well to treat future opportunities and risks through artificial intelligence (AI) with equal priority. In a networked world, cyber attacks by AI have the potential to be a destructive weapon for companies, industries and states of all kinds.

The arms race backed by artificial intelligence and state–sponsored actors shifts towards corporations. This is a war without a classic warrior. It doesn’t matter whether it’s automatic or autonomous. Cyber weapons, like Tomahawk Missiles, are just as disastrous, but even faster and more fatal for balance sheets and nations.

Our future will be less predictable, more unpredictable, more vulnerable and more exciting. States are fighting for supremacy in digitalization. Technology providers, individuals, hacker organizations and terrorist groups are changing the security situation. Thanks to networking, viruses, malware and codes offer new means of power and violence. It’s a known unknown world.

We are still at the beginning of the digital era. Governments, the global economy and regulatory bodies are challenged. Digitalization is driving a geopolitical reorganization. The future brings new forms, intelligent cities, living and autonomous driving, but also the danger of increased electronic warfare (‘non–‐kinetic warfare’), a shift of power and possibly distrust, exponentially increased and unwelcomed dependence.

Artificial intelligence makes things of our everyday life come to life. These network with people, but also with things. It changes us all. Our society is evolving into a mega–computer that allows security measures to be taken while at the same time promoting growth, better understanding our customers and changing our society, but this comes at a price. Are we prepared to pay it?

The fight between California, Moscow and Shenzhen takes already place, and marches fast on the second half of the chessboard. Some believe data, data analysis, data thieves and artificial intelligence are the pillars for power and the world’s future conquest. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. However, our society and politics are changing rapidly today.

Thanks to networking, viruses, malware and codes offer new means of power and violence. State-sponsored hostile cyber operations present an unprecedented challenge to both the public and private sector across IT and Infrastructure. The ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict has exponentially increased the threat of destructive cyber warfare alongside disruptive, extortion and espionage attacks beyond a global 'hidden cyber war'.  So far, the conflict has yet to trigger major cyber spillovers to other countries. However, that could well change as the kinetic war progresses, especially if Russia uses further cyber activity to pressure Ukraine’s allies to support a negotiated settlement or extends its cyber warfare support to allies around the world. The hacktivists supporting both sides of the war may also turn their attention back to corporate targets and the lucrative gains from cybercrime.

Ransomware has captured the headlines over the last 18m months, but this is just a part of broader, underlying shifts in the capabilities, behaviours and motivations of threat actors. In particular, geopolitical tensions have spawned increased state-sponsored/-supported cyberattacks and allowed a whole cybercrime-as-a-service (CaaS) or ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) ecosystem to propagate. CaaS and RaaS have democratised offensive cybercriminal activity: hacking tools and services as well as stolen remote access credentials are bought, sold or loaned on the dark web, allowing even those with rudimentary IT skills to launch cyberattacks. Today there is de facto no difference between a sophisticated threat actor and a nation-state sponsored actor which makes both frequency and severity of malicious attacks on IT and Infrastructure accelerating at unparalleled level.

We live in the most challenging time when it comes down to Ransomware Attacks. There is only one constant which is threat vector change. In some cases, the change rates and means used in attacks are already beyond our traditional cyber security abilities to keep up and respond effectively on time. The concept of Data Clean Rooms and Synthetic Data focuses on allowing companies to access and collaborate with third parties on their data without running a material risk of it falling victim to a Cyber Incident. In such cases, the use of AI creates consistently first-rate simulated advanced synthetic data in line with the original data features but without sensitive attributes minimising the value to any intruder. Data Clean Room and Synthetic Data have the potential to be a true proactive defence mechanism beyond the obvious.

Unlike traditional IT devices often protected by software updates, modern connected devices come with many unknowns that increase the probability of a cyber attack. The zero trust security framework can be adopted to protect the very nature of these connected devices.

The growing cybersecurity threats demand that cybersecurity professionals be more vigilant and agile. Still, burnout is becoming imminent because of the shortage of skilled workers and increasing innovation of cybersecurity threats. Technology solutions like MDR can help.