For those of us of a certain age, the “domino effect” conjures up images of the Cold War and Vietnam. President Dwight Eisenhower even put the concept into words in April 1954 when, warning about the effect of communist takeovers, he said:
Finally, you have broader considerations that might follow what you would call the “falling domino” principle. You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly. So you could have a beginning of a disintegration that would have the most profound influences.
The Cold War may be long over (and we won), but the concept lives on in the cybersecurity world. Here’s the fundamental truth: We can no longer worry only about our own organization’s network security, because so many networks are interconnected and interdependent. A breach in one can easily affect every company in a supply and delivery chain. In fact, we may only be as secure as the least secure partner with whom we connect.
This isn’t some dystopian future I’m talking about: The Cybersecurity Domino Effect is real and relevant, and it’s already happening much more frequently than gets reported. The most public example is the Target breach, where the bad actors got in through a routine and authorized connection from an HVAC vendor. More worryingly, it’s the smaller vendors that often can’t afford sophisticated cyber defenses.
A recent RedSeal survey of high-ranking US executives confirms that I’m not the only one worried about this. The majority says that cyberattacks on one network will have a significant ripple effect. In fact, most of the C-level professionals surveyed readily acknowledge that a coordinated assault launched by sophisticated cybercriminals would wreak havoc on their own business operations and hurt their brands, not to mention profitability and margins.In addition, many point out that in our networked economy, it will be very difficult to contain the problems once an attack begins. A coordinated, sophisticated and large-scale assault will not stay within the four walls of the company being attacked — as walls don’t matter anymore. It can easily have a domino effect and cause widespread disruption. A major network disruption at a single company or network can easily disrupt or even wreak havoc at the local, state, national and even global level.
Asked what other areas might be affected by the “resulting ripple effects of cyberattacks on one network,” a clear majority, 64%, cited “further business-related security vulnerabilities.” More than half, 56%, went further, citing “national vulnerabilities,” and an even larger number, 59%, agreed with the possibility of a security domino effect.
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