75% of CEOs Will be Personally Liable for Cyber-Physical Security Incidents by 2024

ASIA BLOCKCHAIN REVIEW
September 13, 2020

Liability for cyber-physical security incidents will pierce the corporate veil to personal liability for 75% of CEOs by 2024, according to Gartner, Inc.

Due to the nature of cyber-physical systems (CPSs), incidents can quickly lead to physical harm to people, destruction of property or environmental disasters.Gartner analysts predict that incidents will rapidly increase in the coming years due to a lack of security focus and spending currently aligning to these assets.Gartner defines CPSs as systems that are engineered to orchestrate sensing, computation, control, networking and analytics to interact with the physical world (including humans).They underpin all connected IT, operational technology (OT) and Internet of Things (IoT) efforts where security considerations span both the cyber and physical worlds, such as asset-intensive, critical infrastructure and clinical healthcare environments.

“Regulators and governments will react promptly to an increase in serious incidents resulting from failure to secure CPSs, drastically increasing rules and regulations governing them,” said Katell Thielemann, research vice president at Gartner.

“In the U.S., the FBI, NSA and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have already increased the frequency and details provided around threats to critical infrastructure-related systems, most of which are owned by private industry. Soon, CEOs won’t be able to plead ignorance or retreat behind insurance policies.”

Gartner predicts that the financial impact of CPS attacks resulting in fatal casualties will reach over $50 billion by 2023.

Even without taking the actual value of a human life into the equation, the costs for organizations in terms of compensation, litigation, insurance, regulatory fines and reputation loss will be significant.

“Technology leaders need to help CEOs understand the risks that CPSs represent and the need to dedicate focus and budget to securing them,” said Ms. Thielemann. “The more connected CPSs are, the higher the likelihood of an incident occurring.”

With OT, smart buildings, smart cities, connected cars and autonomous vehicles evolving, incidents in the digital world will have a much greater effect in the physical world as risks, threats and vulnerabilities now exist in a bidirectional, cyber-physical spectrum.

However, many enterprises are not aware of CPSs already deployed in their organization, either due to legacy systems connected to enterprise networks by teams outside of IT, or because of new business-driven automation and modernization efforts.

“A focus on ORM – or operational resilience management – beyond information-centric cybersecurity is sorely needed,” Ms. Thielemann said.

Gartner clients can learn more in the report “Predicts 2020: Security and Risk Management Programs.”

Gartner Security & Risk Management Summits

Gartner analysts will provide additional analysis on IT security trends at the Gartner Security & Risk Management Summit 2020 taking place virtually September 14-17 in the Americas and EMEA and December 2-4 in Japan. Follow news and updates from the conferences on Twitter at #GartnerSEC.

About Gartner

Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world’s leading research and advisory company and a member of the S&P 500. We equip business leaders with indispensable insights, advice and tools to achieve their mission-critical priorities today and build the successful organizations of tomorrow.

Our unmatched combination of expert-led, practitioner-sourced and data-driven research steers clients toward the right decisions on the issues that matter most. We are a trusted advisor and an objective resource for more than 14,000 enterprises in more than 100 countries — across all major functions, in every industry and enterprise size.

To learn more about how we help decision makers fuel the future of business, visit gartner.com.

Source: Gartner

Follow Asia Blockchain Review on:

    Related Article
    Blockchain Enables Verification of COVID-19 Immunity
    Given the virus is not going to disappear in a hurry and we are some time away from vaccinating the ...

    November 21, 2020

    Illicit Cryptocurrency Activity: A Concern
    Market regulators such as SEC has accepted cryptocurrencies as a financial instrument and are consta...

    November 20, 2020

    IBM Using Blockchain to Help Businesses Reopen during COVID-19
    IBM’s healthcare unit, IBM Watson recently announced that they will soon be launching an app to supp...

    November 20, 2020

    Canadian Pacific Railway Collaborates with TradeLens
    Canadian Pacific Railway recently collaborated with TradeLens in a bid to improve its efficacy as an...

    November 19, 2020

    We provide information about Asia Blockchain Review latest activities as well as global blockchain news and research. Subscribe to our Newsletter now or Contact us