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If dealers felt at all relaxed about their businesses, they didn’t after Ray Boisvert left the stage at the CADA Summit.
Boisvert joked that other speakers were speaking about hope, trust, greater connectivity and sharing. “I’m here to change your mind about all of that,” says Boisvert, saying instead he was going to talk about doom, risk, hackers and malicious intentions that could undermine all of that.
“Canadians can sometimes be a little naive thinking these things happen somewhere else,” he says. “They don’t. They happen here.”
Boisvert, who described himself as a threat expert, has been involved in the security intelligence industry for more than 30 years. Boisvert is a Senior Associate, Hill + Knowlton Strategies and former Assistant Director of Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). He is also the President of I-Sec Integrated Strategies (ISECIS).
“It is all about the data,” says Boisvert. “Data matters most.” And people are after it.
“I don’t use WiFi anywhere,” says Boisvert. “People are very trusting,” he says, adding that people still file their taxes from their local coffee shops. Not very wise.
He says vehicles are going to be big creators of data, and dealers and automakers are involved in having to protect it whether they want to be or not. “You are part of that network,” says Boisvert.
“The automotive industry is part of this big, big mix,” says Boisvert. Although the industry hasn’t been really hit yet, it’s inevitable as cars get more complex, and produce more and more data that will be valuable to hackers and criminals who will hope to profit from accessing it.
Apart from the vehicle data, dealers also have “gobs of data” about their customers, and financial information and personal information. “It becomes a most valuable target,” says Boisvert.
Boisvert’s heightened sense of risk is based on a long career seeing the lengths that individuals go to, and from anywhere. “Information moves anywhere,” says Boisvert, and people anywhere in the world can reach out and touch you, disrupt your life and steal your identity.
To reinforce his point, Boisvert presented some sobering statistics that showed the cyber hacker world is relentless in its pursuits. There are 80 million cyber security incidents a year; 400 new threats a minute; and 70 per cent of attacks go undetected.
Boisvert talked about the world of unintended consequences, where new communications tools designed to provide one service, could be exploited by other malicious actors bent on using the data and corrupting it in any manner that serves their interest.
Boisvert says when people who work for companies, including dealerships, post to social media about events, travel plans, and other personal or company details, they don’t consider that a group of organized criminals can be studying it all and looking for any ways to exploit it.
Boisvert also talked about the “Dark Web.” He says people can use special browsers to access parts of the Internet that Google and other search engines can’t go. It’s also the place where criminals and hackers hang out. “All the bad guys and girls meet there,” says Boisvert.
Boisvert took dealers through some of the steps they can take to better protect themselves, but also expressed caution that these measures would not fully protect them. As we venture into the brave new world of connectivity and sharing, it’s important to always introduce the idea of risk into our conversations and planning.
Boisvert also fielded questions from dealers. For example, how do they manage the risk when they work with so many different software providers. Boisvert says it’s important as the business owner to stay in control of the process. He says dealers can ask their vendors for their own risk and security strategies for their data. If they are part of the dealer’s ecosystem, they need to bring a high level of security to the table.
Boisvert says dealers should check out the NIST website for resources and other information. http://csrc.nist.gov/
