Securing the entrepreneurship ecosystem

It’s 3 a.m. Despite your family’s “no Internet after dinner” rule, your smart, web-connected refrigerator is rebelling, repeatedly attempting to load the same site. The mustard is not trying to catch up on the news, your ice box has become a zombie in a hacker’s army – a botnet, in industry lingo. While the so-called “Internet of Things” allows for the connectivity of an increasing number of previously “dumb” devices and appliances, their link to the global internet presents a vulnerability hackers have already begun exploiting. With the exponential growth of online risk, of course, comes both an opportunity for consultants and companies specialized in providing cyberdefense, and the need for companies large and small to increase security spending. In the last six years, venture capitalists have grown more keen to cash in on the flourishing cybersecurity market. Startups focused on data protection attracted $3.48 billion in investments in 2016,