In recent months public attention has been on state-led cyber attacks, from the drama of Russian aggression to crude North Korean online bank heists. Of course these matter and we have recently written to UK political parties to warn them about current threats, but this should not become a distraction from the much broader cyber challenge for western countries.
The British government has radically changed its approach to cyber security in the past few years, but we now need an accompanying shift in culture and skills across the private sector if we are to address the rising tide of cyber incidents. The challenge for business is to engage, understand more, and update corporate governance for the digital era.
There is a generational gap at the heart of this. In boardrooms cyber security is now acknowledged as important, but is still seen as a baffling problem for IT experts to fix, or an unavoidable cost of doing business. For the innovators and disrupters, who understand it better, this is someone else’s problem and far less exciting and profitable than the technology they are creating.