Is corporate America protected from cyber-attacks?

Whether it is in the news, on the radio, or through social media, we keep hearing or reading that there have been some sort of cyber-attack happening more and more often. Recently, the hack on Sony was the major topic of discussion not only across the United States, but also around the world. Last Christmas it was the hack into the Target store systems. How and why is this happening? Is corporate information stored on large databases in offsite locations and accessed via the cloud vulnerable to lone wolf or sophisticated teams of hackers conducting major cyber-attacks?

The American business world and their trade secrets have always been closely protected, but are they really in this age of electronic commerce. Have corporate leaders become complacent about their data believing nothing bad will ever happen and why would someone hack their systems? There is definitely a lack of understanding on this issue and that “many business leaders simply do not understand cyber security risk. A report issued in January 2014 by the Lancope and Ponemon Institute titled Cyber Security Incident Response: Are we as prepared as we think? found that corporate leaders in the U.S. and U.K. are often in the dark on cyber security issues. Only 20% of survey respondents said their executives are frequently briefed on cyber threats.”

Threats can be from young hackers who do it so just because they can and want bragging rights to coordinated sophisticated attacks by foreign governments such as Korea or China. So who in Corporate America knows about and understands these treats and what are they doing about it?

Source:

SHAH, SONALI. “Cyber Security Risk: Perception vs. Reality in Corporate America | WIRED.” Wired.com. Conde Nast Digital, 13 Mar. 2014. Web. 10 Jan. 2015. <http://www.wired.com/2014/03/cyber-security-risk-perception-vs-reality-corporate-america/>.