https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/23/opinion/solarwinds-hack.html
"There is no good reason to underspend on security other than to save money —
especially when your clients include government agencies around the world and
when the technology experts that you pay to advise you are telling you to do
more.
As the economics writer Matt Stoller has suggested, cybersecurity is a natural
area for a technology company to cut costs because its customers won’t notice
unless they are hacked — and if they are, they will have already paid for the
product. In other words, the risk of a cyberattack can be transferred to the
customers. Doesn’t this strategy jeopardize the possibility of long-term,
repeat customers? Sure, there’s a danger there — but investors are so focused
on short-term gains that they’re too often willing to take that risk.
The market loves to reward corporations for risk-taking when those risks are
largely borne by other parties, like taxpayers. This is known as “privatizing
profits and socializing losses.” Standard examples include companies that are
deemed “too big to fail,” which means that society as a whole pays for their
bad luck or poor business decisions. When national security is compromised by
high-flying technology companies that fob off cybersecurity risks onto their
customers, something similar is at work."
The same analysis applies to other areas, of course, such as the climate
emergency.
Via Dave Farber.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
