The Senate has blocked an important cybersecurity bill that
would have required business and industry to beef up their security standards,
especially in vulnerable infrastructures like dams, transportation and power
grids. If information warfare ever
breaks out, and most experts think this is just a matter of time, it will
affect all businesses, and then we will have to listen to them howl about the
money they are losing. Yet, the
U.S, Chamber of Commerce screamed that the legislation would be “too
burdensome” for corporations.
From my years in IT, I learned that business never wants to
spend money that won’t immediately bring in more money, and that the short term
always trumps the long term.
Most CEO’s understand zilch about their vulnerability in the area of
cybersecurity and how real the threat of information warfare is. They think the IT department, well, they should serve sales and
marketing and sure, keep our data safe.
Ask yourself how many companies have had credit card and
other information stolen. Hasn’t
that been rather costly? Wouldn’t
it have been better to beef up security rather than alienate customers and
suffer all the bad publicity?
Can’t they see beyond their noses?
I guess not.
For a detailed look at the Senate’s short-sightedness, here is the link from the New York Times:
