The Cyber Risk Handbook

Chapter 24 People Risk Management in the Digital Age

Airmic Julia Graham, Deputy CEO and Technical Director at Airmic, UK

Tom the CEO was chatting with Grace, his head of human resources (HR): “Do you remember that John Connor, a central character in the science fiction series The Terminator, believed that a war between humans and machines would occur?” Tom asked. He summarized the 2003 film, Rise of the Machines, the third film in the Terminator series: The president faced pressure to activate Skynet to stop a computer virus that was infecting computers all over the world. Grace finished the story for Tom. “Yes, toward the end of the film, John reached Crystal Peak, a nuclear base hardened against nuclear attack. He discovers that the facility is not Skynet’s core but a nuclear fallout shelter and that Skynet has no core because it was actually the Internet and the source of the virus spreading the whole time. Judgment Day begins as nuclear missiles are fired at several locations around the world, killing billions of people.”

Rise of the Machines

Fiction perhaps, but a decade on from the making of Terminator 3, fiction is becoming fact. Technology is infiltrating the world from every angle—from in-home sensors to telematics, and wearable devices; information is flowing between people, devices, and companies without any human intervention. But human intervention will remain important in the new normal of the digital world. Man will continue to be at the center of organizations, ...