 security by design part 10 security by design part 10 hemraj mon 10202025 536 security by design part 10 joseph f norton sort by latest trending joseph fnorton latest trending image i am going to begin this blog post with a provocative statement from a security perspective the public internet is the weakest cybersecurity component of your business operations it is literally the superhighway runway from which cybersecurity attacks are launched now that i have your attention let me return to my primary question for you last month  do you and your business have the ability to anticipate prepare for and adapt to changing conditions to withstand respond to and recover from a cyber business disruption  we often think of business disruptions as specific to our own company firm or organization we seldom include risk assessments for the world at large this has perplexed me for years the reason this has perplexed me is our dependence upon the internet as the backbone of our business operations no local regional or global business operates today without relying upon the ubiquitous digital communication connectivity of the internet let me update and add to this post my question concerning your ability to withstand respond to and recover from a cyber business disruption to  do you and your business have the ability to anticipate prepare for and adapt to changing conditions to withstand respond to and recover from any disruption to your access or use of the internet  or more bluntly  can you conduct business operations without the internet  i have been acutely aware of the risks of operating commercial business operations with a reliance on the use of the public internet since the 1990 s it is pervasively risky as kevin roose recently wrote in his nytimes article  did one guy just stop a huge cyberattack  the internet as anyone who works deep in its trenches will tell you is not a smooth welloiled machine the internet as anyone who works deep in its trenches will tell you is not a smooth welloiled machine it s a messy patchwork that has been assembled over decades and is held together with the digital equivalent of scotch tape and bubble gum much of it relies on opensource software that is thanklessly maintained by a small army of volunteer programmers who fix the bugs patch the holes and ensure the whole rickety contraption which is responsible for trillions of dollars in global gdp keeps chugging along in this article kevin roose goes on to describe the nature of the internet and world wide web and how it is a globally distributed network comprising many voluntarily interconnected autonomous networks there is no central governing body there is no central maintenance organization each component network sets and enforces its own policies without coordination with the whole yes the internet engineering task force ietf oversees the internet protocols and the internet society that oversees the ietf and the internet consortium for assigned names and numbers icann controls the dns hierarchy and the allocation of internet protocol ip addresses yes the larger internet service providers isps own and provide the largest parts of the internet infrastructure but there are thousands of isps around the world note ibis world research indicates that there are 27978 global isp businesses as of 2024 and the ietf internet society and icann do not manage the physical manifestation of the internet the internet backbone is physically owned by the various commercial educational government and military entities around the world who implement their networks and interconnections the internet is the most complex of digital environments representing the highest level of systemic digital risk which your business organization faces every day from a security perspective the public internet and your digital communication connections to it are the weakest cybersecurity component of your business operations it is literally the superhighway runway from which cybersecurity attacks are launched this is why the foundations of cybersecurity and your awareness and specific knowledge of your organization s cyber insecurity is so important the yang of the internet is that it enables global digital commerce the yin of the internet is that it enables and facilitates cybersecurity attacks closing question for today  when you brief your senior executive leadership team and boad of directors about cybersecurity risk do you highlight that the internet and your digital connections to it are the weakest cybersecurity component of your business operations   in my upcoming posts i hope to share perspectives on the importance of protecting your internet connection perimeter enterprise critical event response as an enterprise process and sec cybersecurity incident materiality determination and reporting  joseph f norton is a risk security and crisis management professional he is a founding member and qualified technology executive of the digital directors network chair of the advisory board with next era transformation group and chief security officer with apf technologies he has served as chief security officer svp at atos chief technology officer and head of operations svp at philips chief technology officer svp at novartis executiveinresidence with mckinsey company and chief technology officer at mcdonald s he has also held professional roles during his career with jpmorgan bank oracle sybase and grumman aerospace corporation and the united states navy latest webinars our proven track of record view all image webinar clone of the ciso exchange for a safer digital world image webinar the ciso exchange for a safer digital world image webinar zero trust architecture adoption in federal government image webinar zero trust architecture adoption in federal government image webinar zero trust architecture adoption in federal government popular articles unleashing business potential the power of adaptive enterprise architecture in the digital age businesses 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