As people, businesses, and governments\u00a0approach\u00a0a more\u00a0digitally dependent way of life, the risk of breached technological security becomes much larger of an issue. Cyber attacks are rapidly increasing in frequency, targeting celebrities, large businesses, and financial institutions.\u00a0In\u00a0mid June of this year, hackers gained access to JPMorgan’s internet servers that contained user information of current and former customers who accessed the bank’s websites. The bank\u00a0didn’t discover the attack until about two months later, but they promptly found and closed all access paths to the vulnerable servers. A few days ago,\u00a0JP Morgan stated that contact information for 76 million households and 7 million small businesses were compromised in this attack. This included information such as names, email addresses, and phone numbers. Fortunately, no financial information such as passwords, social security numbers, and account numbers were taken, and there were no signs of irregular fraud. Although the investigation isn’t final, there is speculation that the attack emanated from Russia\u00a0through\u00a0malware.\u00a0JPMorgan is now planning on spending\u00a0around $250 million this year to protect itself from future cybercrime.\u00a0The\u00a0day after the amount of people affected by the cyber attack was released, JPMorgan and Chase’s stock took a 1.56% fall, bringing its\u00a0value down to about $58.84 per share. \u00a0CEO Jamie Dion stated in his annual letter to shareholders:<\/p>\n
\u201cCyberattacks are growing every day in strength and velocity across the globe. It is going to be continual and likely never-ending battle to stay ahead of it\u2014and, unfortunately, not every battle will be won.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
JP Morgan isn’t the only company that is stressing out about external cyber attacks. According to a report<\/a> by McKinsey & Company, nearly 80 percent of technology executives said that they don\u2019t feel like they can keep up with the increasingly sophisticated cyber attack strategies. It is estimated that by 2020,\u00a0cyberattacks could slow the pace of technological and business innovation at a magnitude of as much as $3 trillion on a global economic scale.\u00a0A trade-off will occur for many companies due to the fact that\u00a0money that would\u00a0be spent on improving products or business practices will have to be allocated to cyber security. This looming issue\u00a0has grabbed the attention of many CEOs. Unfortunately, they\u00a0are quite pessimistic about the state of their ability to combat cyber attacks both within the company and through\u00a0government relations.\u00a0A survey<\/a> by the World Economic Forum asked 200 companies and agencies about what impact government regulation has on their ability to manage cyber security related risks. A majority of the representatives answered that although the regulations take a lot of time and effort to conform to, but they don\u2019t actually make the company more secure. In September, the\u00a0United States instated that a\u00a0company is legally required to immediately notify the Department of Defense if their information system is a victim of a cyber-attack. In addition, the company must provide the Pentagon with access to the breached computer systems for investigation and forensic analysis. The Department of Defense plans to spend $23 billion through 2018 to combat cyber attacks. Although the United States government is beginning to take action,\u00a0the global economy as a whole has yet to find an adequate defense against the rise of cyberattacks. For the sake of both business innovation and maintaining good\u00a0consumer\u00a0relations, prompt and effective action on cyber attacks will be vital in the next few years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As people, businesses, and governments\u00a0approach\u00a0a more\u00a0digitally dependent way of life, the risk of breached technological security becomes much larger of an issue. Cyber attacks are rapidly increasing in frequency, targeting celebrities, large businesses, and financial institutions.\u00a0In\u00a0mid June of this year, hackers gained access to JPMorgan’s internet servers that contained user information of current and former customers who accessed the bank’s websites. The bank\u00a0didn’t discover the attack until about two months later, but they promptly found and closed all access paths to the vulnerable servers. A few days ago,\u00a0JP Morgan stated that contact information for 76 million households and 7 million Continue reading Increase in Cyber Attacks will Disrupt Global Economy<\/span>