Cyber Terrosism will affect major financial markets

Internet is increasingly seen as the Wild Wild West (www) and a virtual world of lawlessness in the US. Under Obama’s new Cyber Security
policy, India will be an active partner in combating cyber terrorism, says cyber security expert Clifford Gregory, also senior VP (security solutions), IonIdea, an Indian outsourcing firm. He spent over quarter century in the US Military developing cyber security programmes for the Senate and White House, apart from working for the FBI, Metropolitan Police, US Secret Service, and other Federal and security agencies.
Each malware attack costs a company $70K, while lost or stolen hardware costs amounts to $300K. Spear Phishing (specific target) costs $500K, damage by disgruntled employees cost a neat one million each, resulting in a $5 million tag when you destroy a brand. These cost figures are averages. If your company is dependent on data regarding customers, the loss could be multiplied.An assessment done in major bank having global operations of 1,600 large Indian companies including BPOs. Three major weaknesses were noticed. One is access control specifically knowing the person logged onto the system with access to customer data was the person who was authorised to do so and it was that companies should adopt either multi-factor authentication or direct observation via CCTV to provide this level of assurance. Two, was in the area of information transit. Some vendors made great efforts to protect data within their networks, but simply did not consider what might happen while the information was in transit. The third gap was in data leakage private or non-public personal information that is sent via email or other means, especially as part of a call center process or part of the software development testing process.India is one of US’s greatest allies, in combating cyber terrorism, and the opportunity could only get bigger. Any attack which may be directed against Wall Street, the effect would be felt in every major financial markets in the world.China has a single point of entry to the internet from outside their country as a defensive measure against cyberwar and this might be true one day for other nations too.