The Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) today released a new guide to help companies manage their cybersecurity, including how to address cyberthreats and how to prevent cybercrime. The ICC Cyber security guide for business, prepared by the ICC’s Commission on the Digital Economy, was written to help companies address the new types of risks that have to be managed in an environment where new technologies and communications methods are rolled out constantly. The guide acknowledges the strong benefits that accrue to businesses through new technologies, including increased reach to new customers and newly available efficiencies, and aims to help businesses of all sizes – small, mid-sized, and large – grasp and handle the challenges. Connecting more people and more devices creates risks by opening a variety of vulnerabilities that must be addressed to secure individuals’ and organizations’ systems and communications.
There’s no turning back on cyber-connectedness – there are too many benefits for businesses, their employees, and their customers. There’s also no doubting the attendant risks and dangers, and legal and business authorities (including insurers) are increasingly pushing for businesses to take an active, rigorous, and thorough approach to managing their risks. The benefits of such an approach include not only security but potentially increased profits. The costs, on the other hand, are hard to overstate.