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  E*Trade (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 E*Trade!

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




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