duced consulting services that focused on
assessment work in a cyber security envi-
ronment. The third piece of the business
saw NCI become a Payment Card Indus-
try (PCI) organization, which allows them
to audit businesses for the use of credit
cards. Those three entities still make up
NCI’s business model and continue to
grow, Timmins said.
“One of the most difficult things for orga-
nizations to really understand is what their
baseline is, how secure are they,” he ex-
plained. “We’ve developed a product that
focuses on a cyber security framework
and we’ve put it into a format that an ex-
ecutive or a CIO can look at and determine
where their weaknesses are.”
DATA BREACHES CAN
COST MILLIONS
Cyber crime is a serious issue for busi-
nesses, governments and citizens alike.
Earlier this year, the United States issued
an executive order that would expand the
government’s ability to respond to mali-
cious cyber attacks through financial sanc-
tions. President Barack Obama called
cyber threats “one of the most serious
economical and national security challeng-
es to the United States…” Whether it’s a
data breach, phishing attack or any kind of
tampering, cyber security crimes are not
only invasive but can have devastating and
long-term effects. The financial implica-
tions are some of the most shocking. Ac-
cording to a study released earlier this year
by the Ponemon Institute, a research cen-
tre based in Michigan, the average consoli-
dated total cost of a data breach in Can-
ada was $5.32 million. Most of that cost
was a result of lost business following the
JANUARY 2016
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