Soon I will publish my The Top Ten Cybersecurity Threats for 2009.However, before doing so, let's take a look at some interesting aspectsof The Top Ten Cybersecurity Threats for 2008.� In my cybersecurity threat list for 2008, I mentioned:
- Criminal manipulation and subversion of financial markets.
What we observed in 2008 was much more than criminal threats. Now weare seeing both intended and unintended consequences of cyberspace.��For example, analysts from competing banks use the Internet to spread�doom and gloom� rumors and flawed analysis to do serious harm to theircompetitors.
In my post Cyberattack! Manipulation and Subversion of Financial Markets! we discussed the situation of a direct competitor to E*Trade Bank, Citigroup, using the power of cyberspace, rumors and (mis)information to manipulate investor confidence in� ETrade (ETFC).�This might have not been such an eyebrow raising event if the analystrumor, released like a bomb in cyberspace, was by a disinterested thirdparty.� The �cybernews bomb� was released by a direct competitor withtheir own subprime balance sheet problems.� In reality, Citigroup camecloser to bankruptcy than ETrade!
This is a direct abuse of cyberspace and a purposeful, maliciousaction that can threaten every business in today's modern networked,connected world.
Moreover, potential more harmful threats are the unintended, notdirectly malicious �doom and gloom� reports, analysts opinions and newsstories, where the entire cyberworld is full of �doom and gloom�,driving the world's global economics into a downward spiral.
In other words, the biggest looming threat to cyberspace is not thelow level hacks and attacks that IT professional often discuss.�� Thebiggest threat is cyberspace itself and how malicious rumors incyberspace can destroy confidence in sound businesses in milliseconds.�In addition, cyberspace �doom and gloom� has taken on a life of itsown, much like a global personality. Unfortunately, we don't have�cyberdrugs� to treat �doom and gloom� global information-baseddepression.
Many folks are worried that the global economy will be even worse in2009.�� Never in our history have we had such a global economicdownturn combined with global cyberspace �doom and gloom� messagingpumped into our news readers and brains 24 hours a day, 365 days ayear, globally and instantaneously.
Indeed, cyberspace itself has become a serious threat, perhaps the greatest threat for 2009.
Originally published by Tim Bass in Prelude to The Top Ten Cybersecurity Threats for 2009 - Cyberspace