In Depth

Pandemic, Flood Zones, Cyberattacks: Three Not-to-Miss Risks

Risk Management Solutions views avian flu pandemic, flooding and massive cyberattacks as three biggest risks facing the US

By Sarah D. Scalet

"If I was based along the coast and just outside the defined flood zone, I'd be concerned that I might be rezoned or that a storm might hit before the rezoning happened. A corporation may well need to be ahead of the government's thinking on this."

3. A massive cyberattack

"The third big risk would be some kind of cyberattack.

This could be something that brings the network down. It could also be a virus or worm that corrupts data very slowly so that you don't notice it; by the time banks realize the corruption is going on, they have no record that's uncorrupted. The fact that we have a Microsoft monoculture makes us particularly susceptible. If you just have the one species of tree, you could have a disease that wipes out the whole lot. We effectively have something like a monoculture in the systems area.

"The people who have the best understanding of this risk are the people who have the best understanding of how you bring down systems. You almost need a devious imagination."

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