Large Corporations are explaining that the persistent cyberattacks that the federal government has reported as major threats to both proprietary information and the revenue stream have actually done little to hurt the bottom line. Large companies such as MetLife, Coca-Cola, and Honeywell reported limited losses as opposed to the billions federal officials have been claiming.
This is a tough one. A maybe-maybe not situation. It may explain the relative lethargy among the large corporations to tighten by their security against cyberattacks. As with a number of things, nobody sees the reason to bear down now, as the losses are less costly than the expense of developing new security measures. But then should one large corporation get so ruthless attacked that they do lose more precious trade secrets, events can turn on a dime.
According to an article in Bloomberg…”There is a clear discrepancy between what companies are reporting to their stockholders and what they’re declaring to policy makers,” said Sascha Meinrath, vice president of the New America Foundation, a Washington-based policy group. The confusion harms the ability of legislators and agency officials to understand cybersecurity, Meinrath said.
This issue should prove more interesting and potentially more problematic over time.