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The future of cybersecurity

The future of cybersecurity

John-Paul Sikking, head of security at Cisco, says the GDP of some nations, including New Zealand, seems paltry compared to the cost of cybercrime. Enterprises – and their leaders all the way to the boardroom – need to be asking tough questions, and make everyone accountable for cybersecurity.

John-Paul Sikking, head of security at Cisco, talks about the top trend this year – how organisations are confronting the escalating security threat.
John-Paul Sikking, head of security at Cisco, talks about the top trend this year – how organisations are confronting the escalating security threat.
Cybercrime is estimated to have cost US$445 billion last year, says
John-Paul Sikking, head of security at Cisco New Zealand.

He says this is a conservative figure, as he has seen reports estimating its cost to be as high as US$575 billion.

The only numbers that he can relate to these figures are the GDP of whole countries, he states. This means cyber criminals stole more than the GDP of Austria, Thailand, Denmark, South Africa and New Zealand, with its $201 billion GDP.

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“That is more than twice New Zealand’s GDP that is lost to cybercrime,” says Sikking, who spoke at the recent CIO100 event in Auckland and Wellington.

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His presentation focused on the number one business technology trend discerned from this year’s CIO100 report – confronting the escalating security threat.

He points out security continues to be a top five CEO concern and for the past few years, and is now trending at number one.

“Security impacts everything we do, from driving here in your car today, choosing an airline or even deciding who is going to make your coffee, let alone the decisions about sharing your personal information online,” he states.

“Security underpins the future views we have of our organisations, our country and even globally; from supporting agile economies, fast IT and the Internet of Everything… we have to get security right for these visions to come to fruition.”

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He says how organisations leverage security across trends like cloud and mobility, will define how they will benefit from changes in the business technology environment, and differentiate themselves from the competition.

Related: New Zealand Defence Force CIO Victor Vae’au talks about cyber and the new warfighting domain.

The key issue is that security is still seen as a roadblock rather than an enabler, he states. “CIOs still struggle to get the money and resource commitment to deliver against the needs of the organisation.”

Read more: ‘The CIO holds the most strategic role in the enterprise today, with the exception of the CEO’

We have to now assume there is a level of compromise in our organisation.

John-Paul Sikking, Cisco NZ

He underscores the need to change the views on how organisations view cybersecurity.

“We have to now assume there is a level of compromise in our organisation.”

Read more: CIO Upfront: Why accounting for IT is as important as calling IT to account

Join the CIO New Zealand group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

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Tags strategyCISOciscoData CenterBoardcustomer focususer experienceCIO100CIOS and the boardJohn-Paul Sikkinguser focuscyberanalytics

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