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Is a ‘Cyber Pandemic’ Coming?

For more than a decade, security leaders predicted that a “Cyber Pearl Harbor” or “Cyber 9/11” was coming that would dramatically change society as we know it. For example, back in 2013, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said, “Our country will, at some point, face a major cyber event that will have a serious effect on our lives, our economy and the everyday functioning of our society.”

However, over the past few years, these bold predictions that the Internet sky is falling have largely dropped off the map — until this past week under a new name. As I have chronicled for the past several years in my annual “Lohrmann on Cybersecurity” security prediction report from top security companies and media organizations, “Very few dire predictions (again) about Cyber 9/11s or Cyber Pearl Harbors or even people dying in hospitals from cyberattacks.”

The main reason that most cyber prognosticators dropped these scary predictions seemed to be an overdose of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) was bad for business and seemed to be getting old. Like constantly predicting the stock market will crash, people were getting tired of these messages. Rather, most experts started to shift to more of a pragmatic approach to future cybersecurity predictions, with ample research backing up claims.

But this trend quietly changed this past week, under a new name inspired by COVID-19.

While the majority of people were focused this past week on peaceful protests against police brutality and the death of George Floyd, or rioting in some cities, or the surprisingly positive jobs numbers and stock market performance, several well-respected leaders and groups are now predicting that a “cyber pandemic” is coming soon.

First, from the Check Point CEO:

“The founder and CEO of Israeli cybersecurity (Read more...)