Understanding the Wannacry Malware Attack and Costly Data Breaches

This week's episode of Monday Morning Radio is ripped from this month's business headlines. It will be of special interest to listeners who own or operate online businesses.

Our guest is Tom Kemp, CEO and co-founder of Centrify, one of the fastest growing security vendors in the industry, serving more than 5,000 customers, including a majority of the Fortune 50.

Initially, our plan was to speak Tom about data breaches - such as those that hit Yahoo and Target. These much-publicized cyber attacks are becoming more frequent, more costly, and more widespread among all online businesses - big and small.

Then the WannaCry ransomware attack hit, impacting hundreds of thousands of the world’s computers in more than 150 countries. The malware forced some businesses to close while their IT people scrambled to find solutions.

So we expanded the scope of our interview with Tom Kemp to include data breaches and ransomware. - They are, after all, cyber attack first cousins.

Centrify recently commissioned an independent study, conducted by the Ponemon Institute, to gauge the impact of data breaches on companies and their customers. The study is unique in that it incorporates the view of three diverse groups: IT experts; senior level marketing and corporate communication professionals; and consumers.

What Centrify discovered are insights that every CEO and business owner should be aware of: Cyber attacks are never confined to your IT staff. They impact every aspect of your company, including sales, marketing, finances - and for publicly held companies - shareholder value.

Whether you work at  an Inc. 5000 company, a Fortune 50 company, or simply a business that does business with these companies, you need to know how to protect yourself from data breaches and other cyber attacks sure to make you - and your customers - wanna cry.