Vanguard Magazine

T TEChnoloGy wATCh www.vanguardcanada.com DeCeMBer 2016/JANUArY 2017 41 a lgorithms now know more about what we want than we even know ourselves. I want everyone reading to think about something for a minute: if you aren't paying for a product, then you are the product. I'm not sure everyone thinks about that when they log into Gmail, Facebook or Linke- din. I am the world's biggest proponent of going digital and the dramatic benefits it will continue to bring to society from not only an efficiency perspective, but also to reduce barriers, open up opportunities and lift our entire economy and society. The dark side of the digital world The scary part of the digital world as we all know is the possibil- ity of critical information getting into the hands of the wrong people. A few examples come easily to mind: Let's start with the 2015 attack on Sony. This attack released thousands of people's personal information, along with executives' email conversations, and demanded that they pull the comedy about North Korea, The Interview. In the end, the attack cost the studio tens of millions of dollars in recovery. Then, who can forget the attack on Ashley Madison, which re- leased the email addresses of the extra-marital dating site's 32 million users, causing millions of awkward situations, destroying marriages, and even causing suicides; the aftermath of which is still playing out over a year later, albeit with strong leadership at the helm now. Other examples include the ironic hacking of Mark Zucker- berg's social media accounts, the attack on the Democratic Party networks during the 2016 campaign, and the targeting of Oracle MICROS networks, which took control of cash registers across various retailers and gained access to users' login information. Further, there has been increasing use of ransomware attacks, such as recent attacks on Canadian hospitals and the University of Calgary, which take hold of data and require payment, usually in hard-to-track Bitcoins, before releasing the information back to its owners. Cybercrime is big business Let me be clear in saying: cybercrime is big business, and it costs the victims immensely. In a study conducted by the Ponemon Institute, it was estimated that the average cost of a single cyber attack on Canadian businesses was $6.03 million in 2016. This figure is 14 per cent higher than what was estimated in 2015 and seems to be increasing as attacks become more complex. These figures include the estimated costs of losing customers, but I doubt they are able to fully capture the brand and reputational hits companies face depending on severities. Rank Soware's Threat Detection Platform, VASA.

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