Often when I ask an executive if a service provider's Continuity Plan has been practised, they don't know, which is worse than having no plan. Ben Scheltus, General Manager, Continuity Matters

Readiness to detect, contain and respond to Information Security threats is measured by an organisation's state of Cyber Maturity. The Cyber Maturity journey requires strong leadership direction and sustained action - it's not a software procurement matter that can be left solely in the hands of IT departments or Information Security generalists.

An organisation's state of Cyber Maturity, at any point in time, determines its level of Cyber Resilience - which is the organisation's ability to recover from a cyber crisis when it happens.

The Reboot Show, in conjunction with TrustedImpact hosted a series of leadership discussions, for executives and board members, with 9 Cyber Security experts in Australia to unpack modern security perspectives and reflect on contemporary misconceptions.

This discussion paper summarises key insights shared by 9 Cyber Security experts including:

• Executive responsibility for preventable crises

• The Cyber Maturity continuum and building Cyber Resilience

• Navigating business risks at the speed of software

• Unique risks associated with cloud services

• Creating engagement through training and awareness

• TrustedImpact's Cyber Security Training and Awareness Program Pillars

• Limitations of Penetration Testing

You can download the discussion paper here.

The expert discussions can be viewed here.

“No developed country has more to lose from climate change-fuelled extreme weather, or more to gain as the world transforms to a zero-carbon economy, than Australia does,” said Professor Will Steffen.

Re-assess your risks in 2021

The Trump presidency and more recently the COVID-19 pandemic has intensified competition between the US and China. It is likely that both countries will seek superiority in the digital realm and restructure their supply chains.

According to the Global Risks Report 2021, Middle powers like Australia are likely to be squeezed. We are already suffering from China’s decisions to limit imports of a number of important commodities. Hopefully, we will not be put in a position where we have to pick a side.

 We all hope that the Biden presidency can quickly repair the damage caused by the impact of the pandemic on the US. One of the salient lessons from the pandemic is the fragility of our supply chains and the prevalence of critical products being supplied from countries far from Australia – often a single source.

Use your 2020 experience to re-asses the resilience of your supply chains. If you have staff monitoring your modern slavery obligations, they may be able to assist.

The WEF Global Risks Report 2021 also identifies the ever increasing threat posed by hackers. The sophistication, number and funding of hackers (both criminals and nation states) continues unabated.

It is difficult for organisations to decide the extent of resources they should devote to this risk. The good news is that (like washing hands and wearing a mask) basic hygiene greatly reduces the risk from being the victim of a successful attack. The Australian Cyber Security Centre has an excellent guide to assist you implement these basic hygiene actions.

Is it time to review your cyber security approach in light of the ACSC guide?

The third and most prevalent risk identified was climate change. In the top seven global risks – climate change risks occupy four positions for impact and four for likelihood.

The seven hottest years on record globally all occurred in the past seven years.

Although most of us will remember 2020 as the year of COVID, the impact of climate change on Australia was exceptional – starting with the bushfires that engulfed SE Australia.

Australia is particularly exposed to climate change. On January 4th 2020, Penrith was the hottest place on Earth at 48.9˚C!

These physical risks, caused by extreme heat, storms and floods will increasingly impact the operations of Australian business.

If your organisation has widely distributed operations, has large critical assets, is heavily dependent on a reliable power supply or has long supply chains, we strongly advise that you re-visit your Risk Register in light of the warnings from the Global Risks Report and locally from the Climate Council 

The Biden presidency has wasted no time in aggressively re-setting the strategy the US intends to employ to tackle climate change. In addition, the UK and the EU have already warned trading partners that they will use carbon tariffs to punish countries that they deem are not acting on climate change. This is a large risk for any Australian company that exports to the UK, EU or the US.

As a result, the Australian Government may need to implement policies that impact the operations of Australian companies.

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Please consider these transition risks in light of your business operations. The Australian Government may move quickly in light of pressure from its trading partners. Policy action by the government may have a substantial impact on some of these risks.

Please also remember that throughout the pandemic, critical decisions were made by Governments. The primary obligation of your Crisis Management Teams was to comply with the instructions issued by the various Health Department and Chief Medical Officers.

If your business suffers a major hack, a fire to the building or sells a product that makes your customer sick, there will be no Government to give instructions on how you should manage the crisis. Furthermore, your competitors and customers may actively seek to profit from your misfortune.

Please contact Continuity Matters if we can help you re-assess your resilience, develop a business resilience program or validate your plans by conducting an exercise. 

Key findings:

Rapid spread of the coronavirus will weaken China’s growth sharply in the short-term, causing global disruption. While there were signs in early 2020 that the worst was over for world trade and manufacturing, that optimism has been dashed by the outbreak.

In China, we expect the near-term impact to see Q1 growth plunge to just 3.8% y/y. Although growth should then rebound, it will take time for the loss in activity to be fully recovered and we have cut our 2020 China growth forecast by 0.6pp to just 5.4%.

Global conditions should strengthen in H2 as the disruption fades. But we now project 2020 global growth will slow to just 2.3%, its weakest since 2009.

Read the full report here

"It really is death by a thousand cuts,” said John Evans, managing director of Tractus Asia, a company that has 20 years’ experience helping firms move to China, but which over the past two has had more enquiries from businesses looking to leave. “This is a black swan event and I don’t think we’ve seen anything like it in recent history, in terms of the economic and supply chain impact in China and across the globe.”

In October 2019, Dr. Janet Woodcock, the director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, testified before Congress that the United States “has become a world leader in drug discovery and development, but is no longer in the forefront of drug manufacturing.” 72% of API manufacturing takes place outside the U.S., and the use of foreign-sourced materials “creates vulnerabilities in the U.S. supply chain,” Woodcock concluded.

The ripple effect coming from one region in China is completely unprecedented,” Kamal said. “We’ve never seen anything like this.