What Are The Social Implications That Arise from the Use of Financial Incentives to Influence Businesses to Develop Powerful Cybersecurity Strategies Beneficial to Society?

The use of financial incentives to influence businesses to develop powerful cybersecurity measures has several social implications we will discuss. Primarily the use of financial incentives can lead to a significant overall investment in cybersecurity which can lead to major upgrades and enhanced security features and measures. The increase in security will build public trust for digital infrastructure and also allow for a more secure online environment. On the other hand, socially, when financial incentives are linked to implementing cybersecurity measures businesses might prefer to follow fulfillment mechanisms rather than actually building and implementing genuine security measures. Due to the possibility of this strategy we could see businesses use surface security tactics that aren’t suitable to protect against cyberthreats. Also we could see possible major differences in how smaller businesses will respond to these incentives compared to those of the larger scale businesses creating a wide gap in cybersecurity capabilities throughout all industry sectors, private and government. Lastly, the focus on financial incentives might shift attention away from other important aspects of cybersecurity like education and awareness.This funding and development of high quality cybersecurity tools can create a false sense of security because employees might still be underdeveloped, untrained and lack awareness.

The need to use financial incentives is to encourage businesses to develop strong cybersecurity strategies for the betterment of society. A key social factor that leads to the development of implementing financial incentives for strong and proper cybersecurity measures is the need to raise awareness of cyber threats amongst the general public. With ongoing cybercrime on the rise, everyday someone is a victim of cybercrime and this poses a threat to our society. Though cybercrimes aren’t violent or sometimes severe, the high volume of crimes present a demand for businesses to prioritize cybersecurity because these crimes violate our societal norms. The pressure of societal normatives being violated is what pressures the government and other organizations to implement financial incentives as a way that is meant to promote enhanced and effective security practices throughout the nation and is beneficial for society. Another social implication for financial incentives to be developed is for the need to mend the cyber inequality gap between larger corporations and the smaller businesses. With smaller businesses in the private sector having less resources and aren’t as funded as the larger corporations like the government industries, these smaller businesses serve as a weak link and are the most vulnerable sectors of society in the case of an attack. The need for financial incentives could be crucial for these smaller sectors and help them collect more funding to better upgrade their security measures. This is all in efforts to mend the cyber inequality gap because as stated by the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) the key components to fixing the current gap are: coordination and cooperation, integration of cybersecurity and development expertise, ownership by the country, creating sustainability and ongoing mutual learning. These components are critical to fixing the cyber gap because a nation is only as strong as its weakest link.

Providing financial incentives to cybersecurity businesses will result in an increase of digital security and will build public trust for digital infrastructure and also allow for a more secure online environment. With a safe digital environment there will be a high volume of participation in e-commerce and that will boost digital revenue allowing for re-investment into the cybersecurity industry. People can feel free and safe to participate in the digital world knowing their information isn’t at risk of being exposed. On the other hand, the main social consequence of providing financial incentives to organizations is that this funding might create a false sense of security. Organizations might use the money they receive from funding to upgrade their hardware, software and other systems to most recent versions; meanwhile this could result in a sense of false security. As we’ve discussed in this class, one of the five most common mistakes organizations make is saying “When we invest in the best-of-class technical tools, we are safe”. The problem with this issue is that many businesses believe that advanced cyber tools will keep them safe from cyber threats which is untrue because effective cybersecurity is dependent on people, processes, strategy, and then lastly technology, as KPMG pointed out.

This leads to the last social factor which is culture. The culture of an organization stems from its leadership and as we’ve also previously discussed, culture is the most important part of an organization and changing it is likely the most challenging issue an organization will face. When an organization starts receiving funding it might completely affect their culture creating a new identity for the organization. For an organization that is exceptionally passionate about cybersecurity, the new funding might allow it to exceed goals and create new standards. On the other hand, some organizations might allocate their funding to advanced cyber tools and shift focus away from employee training. As previously mentioned: effective cybersecurity is dependent on people, processes, strategy, and then lastly technology. Lack of proper cyber education from employees is a recipe for disaster because they are then liabilities to social engineering tactics. Simply put, employees are the key to an organization because the human factor in cybersecurity is far more important than the tools used. Employees lacking awareness can put an organization in severe danger because they are subject to social engineering tactics such as: phishing, pretexting, baiting, tailgating etc. Although culture looks and is different everywhere, social engineering is the same anywhere and it is important to maintain a culture with highly trained employees because this is the most effective cybersecurity practice.

References

Hohmann, D., Pirang, M., & Benner, J. (2017). Advancing cybersecurity capacity building. Global Public Policy Institute. https://gppi.net/assets/Hohmann__Pirang__Benner__2017__Advancing_Cybersecurity_Capacity_Building.pdf

T. Vagoun and G. O. Strawn, “Implementing the Federal Cybersecurity R&D Strategy,” in Computer, vol. 48, no. 4, pp. 45-55, Apr. 2015, doi: 10.1109/MC.2015.111. keywords: {Research and development;Government policies;Computer crime;Heuristic algorithms;Computer security;cybersecurity research;cybersecurity initiatives;security frameworks;technology policy},

KPMG. (2014). Cyber security: It’s not just technology. https://assets.kpmg.com/content/dam/kpmg/pdf/2014/05/cyber-security-not-just-technology.pdf

AHMED-KARGBO

Policy Paper 4

What Are The Social Implications That Arise from the Use of Financial Incentives to Influence Businesses to Develop Powerful Cybersecurity Strategies Beneficial to Society?

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