A combination of physical attacks and cyberattacks to force instability in financial markets could become an enormous financial boon for organized crime and nation state assaults – so says Scott Borg, Director, CEO and Chief Economist at the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit.
The formula for predicting the next cyberattack includes these four variables:
1. Who’s out there?
2. What are their capabilities?
3. How can they benefit from an attack?
4. What are the targets?
Watch our video interview with Scott Borg here:
VIDEO: Scott Borg Talks About Cyberattacks On The Financial Sector at RSA 2017
Ulilizing Economic Models to Predict Cyberattacks
“We don’t predict cyberattacks based on trends,” says Borg. “We simply figure out who’s out there and how can they can profit and benefit from a cyberattack.”
Utilizing economic models, Borg says they’ve been very successful predicting, since 2002, what will be next wave of cyberattacks. Back in 2002, Borg and his team believed that disruptive viruses made by teenagers were going to be a thing of the past. What organizations would have to worry about was organized crime systematically going after customer account information.
But that soon had to evolve as well.
“There’s a limit to how much money you can steal by credit card fraud,” said Borg in conversation with Cylance at the 2017 RSA Conference in San Francisco. Borg predicts the next wave of attacks, which will be far more lucrative, will go after our financial markets.
“If you can cause a significant event in a financial market there’s almost always a way to profit by that,” said Borg, who points out that a criminal could first sell short a stock on some organization and then perform a physical or cyberattack on that organization, generating a return on investment hundreds of times over.
ABOUT SCOTT BORG:
Scott Borg is the Director, CEO and Chief Economist of the US Cyber Consequences Unit, an independent, nonprofit research institute that investigates the strategic and economic consequences of cyberattacks. Widely recognized as the leading authority on the economics of cybersecurity, Borg is responsible for many of the concepts currently used to analyze the implications of cyberattacks in business contexts. He comments for NBC, CNN, the BBC, NPR and other broadcast media, served on the Commission on Cybersecurity for the 44th Presidency, and has lectured at Harvard, Yale, Columbia and other leading universities.
About the Author
David Spark is a veteran tech journalist and founder of Spark Media Solutions. Since 1996, Spark and his articles have appeared in more than 40 media outlets including eWEEK, Wired News, PCWorld, ABC Radio, John C. Dvorak’s “Cranky Geeks,” KQED’s “This Week in Northern California,” and TechTV (formerly ZDTV). Spark is also the author of the book, “Three Feet from Seven Figures: One-on-One Engagement Techniques to Qualify More Leads at Trade Shows.” Today, Spark blogs regularly on the Spark Minute and is a regular contributor for Forbes. Spark is a noted speaker, entertainer, and moderator at tech and marketing events.
