Some firms have had enough of battling toxic online forces and would rather get out, says BILL MAGEE
Some beleaguered businesses have had it up to here with an increasingly toxic internet that threatens to cripple if not all but bring an enterprise down. Endlessly confronted by an ever-rising risk of being assaulted online by a combination of commercial bullying, malicious phishing scams, and copies of key products illegally sold on the market, they’re seriously considering quitting the Internet for good.
No one is immune from cyber-attack. Even Tesla’s Elon Musk couldn’t stop a major data leakage of salaries of his 140,000 employees.
Ex-FBI and Microsoft UK global cyber expert Edward Gibson has now issued a timely cybersecurity warning from across the pond. It comes as generative artificial intelligence (genAI) is all but taking over online and mobile channels and putting new pressures on already IT-weary firms.
Well known to Scottish business conference delegates as “Ed the Fed”, Gibsonwas federal bureau chief in charge of UK investigations. He was then headhunted by Microsoft for the post of chief cyber security adviser. He has given more than 250 presentations in places such as Saudi Arabia, Japan, Ukraine, and Russia well before the current war.
He told me from Washington DC, where he operates as a licensed private investigator in the State of Virginia: “Cyber defences? I could give the same presentation today that I gave 20 years ago. It’s all about people.”
Virtual gangs are nowadays often organised on a cellular basis with no real knowledge of each other. Rather than the common perception of a detached teenager in a darkened bedroom. Increasingly, such gangs have the power, and often ambition, to take down an organisation.
Gibson says “most of these people know what they’re doing…and if we don’t get on top of the problem they are going to take the internet to the point where people may fear to venture into it.”
One energy sector executive, who discovered a recent phishing attempt to snare nuclear waste management workers, told me: “You know, I wonder if such constant online aggro is worth it.”
Gibson, who was a financial regulatory public arbitrator and CEO of Embassy Attache Groups plus a DC special inspector general for pandemic recovery 2020-2021, emphasises how a simple mistake at work can result in costly implications.
During his five-year stint with Microsoft Gibson persuaded the software giant to provide forensic training in the UK and Ireland involving law enforcement officers and officials from other European countries.
Food for thought as regards duplicating a private or private sector employee – and employer – cyber training course to help ensure survival of an organisation.
*This is an abridged version of a column for www.holyrood.com/connect
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