Should Fortune 500 firms be looking to add cyber security expertise to their boards?

That is a question raised by Alec Ross, a Senior Fellow at the Columbia University School of International & Public Affairs. In an interesting piece “Sony Hack Attacks Presage New Warfare: The Weaponization of Code“, Ross observes that “Any big company can be brought to its knees by an aggrieved party.”

One thing that needs to go on every Fortune 500 board chairman’s to do list is to start a search for a board member with cyber expertise. About 10 years ago it became near-mandatory for every board of directors to have a member with expertise in the audit function. In five years, any board of directors without a board director with expertise in cyber will be perceived as a shortcoming of corporate governance.

At The 2015 Canadian Telecom Summit [June 1-3, Toronto], there will be a special session looking at “Cyber Security” moderated by Radware’s VP of Security Solutions, Carl Herberger.

As Ross wrote, “every large company needs to recognize that cyber offense is easier than cyber defense.” Policy makers and corporate leaders need to understand what can be done – indeed, what needs to be done – to bolster cyber defense capabilities.

There are many voices calling for increased initiatives by municipalities to build and operate broadband internet infrastructure as a public utility, but until this week, very little in the way of economic analysis to fully examine whether the benefits justify the costs.

A paper [pdf] released this week finds that local efforts produce small economic benefits, but cause a notable increase in the size of local government.

In “Community Broadband, Community Benefits? An economic analysis of local government broadband initiatives“, Brian Deignan of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University found that “publicly supported broadband networks lead to over 3 percent more business establishments, while reducing worker income by 1.3 percent, all else being equal. The networks have no discernible effect on private sector employment, but they increase local government employment by around 6 percent.”

He recommends fostering private sector investment:

In light of the financial difficulties some public networks experience and the limited economic benefits they offer, public involvement is more wisely directed toward fostering private sector innovation as opposed to maintaining a more active role. Local initiatives that maintain an active role for local government can lead to a misallocation of resources if they ignore market signals and cause taxpayers to bear the uncertainty of the broadband market as opposed to private shareholders.

According to the paper, “the private sector impact of [public broadband] infrastructure investment is not large enough to ignore the growth in local government and the financial stress that publicly supported broadband puts on a community.”

Before many of us take a break for the holidays, we wanted to let you know that registrations are now open for The 2015 Canadian Telecom Summit, taking place June 1 – 3, 2015 in Toronto.

Hear from the leaders
Keynote speakers include a host of Canadian and global industry leaders. Visit our website often to see the program as it continues to develop.

The Canadian Telecom Summit, now in its 14th year, is Canada’s leading ICT event, attracting more than 500 of the most influential people who shape the future direction of communications and information technology in Canada. For 3 full days, The Canadian Telecom Summit delivers thought provoking presentations from the prime shapers of the industry. This is your chance to hear from and talk with them in both a structured atmosphere of frank discussion and high-octane idea exchange and schmooze in a more relaxed social setting of genial conversation.

Covering the entire industry
Once again, you will have the opportunity to interact with executives of leading service providers, equipment suppliers, applications developers, policy makers, regulators and major customers.

In-depth panels will examine:

• Cyber Security: perils, protection and the role of ICT;
• Big Data & Analytics: managing and exploiting a treasure trove of information;
• Competition in Telecom;
• Customer Experience Management;
• Mobile Commerce: the future of banking and shopping in Canada’s digital economy;
• The Internet of Things: Hyperconnectivity;
• Turbo-charging network performance: Achieving quantum improvements in service;
• and of course, the not-to-be-missed Regulatory Blockbuster.

Plan to attend
If your interests lie in the Telecommunications, IT or Broadcasting sectors, you need to attend The 2015 Canadian Telecom Summit. Mark the dates on your calendar: June 1 – 3.

Take advantage of our early bird registration rates by reserving your place now.

In the fourth edition of its annual trend report, Ericsson ConsumerLab says that consumers want technology and connectivity to be integrated into all facets of daily life.

These are the ten trends for 2015 and beyond:

1. The streamed future. 2015 will be historic as more people will watch streamed video on a weekly basis than broadcast TV.
2. Helpful homes. Consumers show high interest in having home sensors that alert them to water and electricity issues, or when family members come and go.
3. Mind sharing. Smartphone owners would like to use a wearable device to communicate with others directly through thought – and believe this will be mainstream by 2020.
4. Smart citizens. Consumers believe traffic volume maps, energy use comparison apps and real-time water quality checkers will be mainstream by 2020.
5. The sharing economy. Smartphone owners are open to renting out their spare rooms, household appliances and leisure equipment as it is convenient and can save money.
6. The digital purse. 80 percent of smartphone owners believe the smartphone will replace their entire purse by 2020.
7. My information. 56 percent of smartphone owners would like all internet communication to be encrypted.
8. Longer life. Smartphone owners see cloud-based services of various kinds giving them the potential to live healthier and longer lives.
9. Domestic robots. Consumers are welcoming the idea of having domestic robots that could help with everyday chores and believe this will be common in households by 2020.
10. Children connect everything. 46 percent of smartphone owners say that children will expect all objects to be connected when they are older.

I liked seeing what Ericsson said about smart cities. You may recall that earlier this year, I wrote a post “A little smarter every day“, saying “Building a smart city means creating a culture that works to make the community a little bit smarter every day.”

Ericsson wrote:

The idea of smart cities is intriguing – but a lot of that smartness will emerge as a side effect of the changing everyday behaviors of citizens. As the internet makes us more informed, we are in turn making better informed decisions. When citizens turn smart, so will the cities they inhabit.

Check out the full report.

Roslyn Layton has an article [Measuring the digital economy: Progress across the board] that provides links to important new reports from the ITU and the OECD.

As Roslyn writes:

Too often in the press and policymaking, cherry-picked statistics are used to justify any number of proposals and positions. Single metrics are taken out of context and used to create artificial hierarchies among countries, as if a single data point like broadband speed can convey all you need to know about the health of a country’s networks.

The ITU report, Measuring the Information Society Report 2014 [pdf], is a 270 page report filled with global access, use and skills indicators from 166 countries. Chapter 4 is particularly interesting, examining “ICT prices and the role of competition,” with its concluding section 4.5: “The impact of competition and regulation on telecommunication prices.”

The OECD report, Measuring the Digital Economy: A New Perspective [online], looks at a range of metrics across the 34 OECD member countries. The report is structured with “A Measurement Agenda for the Digital Economy”, a snapshot of the state of “The Digital Economy Today”, and four thematic chapters, covering topics such as infrastructure availability, openness and participation in the Internet economy, security and privacy. The thematic chapters are:

• Investing in smart infrastructure
• Empowering society
• Unleashing creativity and innovation
• Delivering growth and jobs

There are interesting comparisons on productivity in the digital sector contrasted between countries and with the general national economy. Canada’s information industries are found to be operating at 2.5 times the productivity levels of the general economy, well above the OECD average of 60% higher productivity in the information sector.

This chart is expanded upon in section 5.4 of the OECD report.

In another chart [Section 2.9], the OECD found that Canadians had the lowest level of concerns about privacy among all OECD nations when asked main reason for not buying online.

The reports should make for interesting reading over the holidays.