Week 08: Social Engineering, Encoding and Encryption

The top 15 safest nations are:

1. Switzerland (Data risk score – 1.6 percent)
2. Singapore (1.9)
3. Iceland (2.3)
4. Luxembourg (2.6)
5. Hong Kong (3.6)
6. Taiwan (3.9)
7. Austria (5.2)
8. New Zealand (5.2)
9. Portugal (6.9)
10. Denmark (7.6)
11. Finland (7.6)
12. Lithuania (7.6)
13. Norway (7.9)
14. Sweden (7.9)
15. South Korea (8.3)

The benchmark identified Switzerland as the least risky nation for data storage with the lowest “potential risk score” of 1.6 percent. There is a risk map (https://www.artmotion.eu/risk-map/) which includs170 countries and shows Switzerland is the safest nation and Somalia is the least safe nation. CEO of Artmotion said: “More than ever, it is important for businesses and individuals to understand the impact that location can have on the privacy and security of their data. In the age of cloud computing, it’s easy to forget that every piece of information stored still requires a physical home, and that the geographic location of that home can have a serious impact on data privacy.”

link: http://www.securitymagazine.com/articles/87494-the-top-15-countries-for-safe-data-storage

News of another cyber attack on a nuclear power plant surfaced this week, as explained by Yukiya Amano, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA).  Amano explained that the attack happened three years ago and was disruptive, however it was not serious because it did not shut down operations.  The article discusses how serious this risk is and the need to take more precautionary measures to improve security in industrial systems.

I used to perform IT Audits of a utilities company, including their antiquated SCADA systems.  Securing these systems is very complex and challenging.  They are built to be available and have a very specific purpose to manage the energy grid.  This often makes patching and currency a major issue and introduces vulnerabilities within the environment that are ripe for exploitation, as we see in this article.

I agree with the director that we need to improve security to our critical infrastructure.  Hopefully, the industry heeds these early warning signs and begins to take significant action to improve security before it’s too late.

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN12A1OC