UMD-Smith Delivers Pioneering Cybersecurity Research
Researchers Produce First Statistical Evidence that Certain Cyber Practices Can Reduce Specific Breaches
With cyberattacks on U.S. companies and customers proliferating in 2017, Supply Chain Management Center researchers at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business have developed and effectively tested a process for organizations across all industries — for the first time — to self-assess their cybersecurity needs and vulnerabilities.
Among the lasting effects of a catastrophic natural disaster like Hurricane Harvey is one that is undeniably positive: Knowledge. It's an understanding of what is needed in the wake of a disaster, which efforts worked and which failed, and how to be better prepared. The Smith School's Sandor Boyson has long studied how Walmart, FedEx and other big companies have adapted their disaster planning. Each mega-disaster brings its own challenges, Boyson says, and with each one new lessons are learned. He discusses what lessons Harvey might bring. 
Setting aside NAFTA reform, a border adjustment tax and U.S.-China trade war as potential disruptors, "conditions especially favor the United States to remain a key hub in the global supply chain and to expand its competitive leadership in the future," says the Smith School's Sandor Boyson He sized up the U.S. supply chain base for a recent Washington, D.C., gathering of industry leaders hosted by SelectUSA, a program housed in the International Trade Administration at the U.S. Department of Commerce. "The U.S. increasingly attracts substantial supply chain investments," he says. It's a trend that's driven by demand from reshoring U.S. companies and from companies in emerging markets. And it's growing. 
The WannaCry ransomware that has affected more than 230,000 computers in 150 countries now has largely halted its crawl across the globe, but experts say the attack's real impact might be yet to come. The assault could herald a turning point in cyber intrusions and in the way institutions handle cybersecurity, says the Smith School's Martin Loeb, and co-author, with with Smith School colleague Lawrence A. Gordon, of the Gordon-Loeb Model for Cybersecurity Investments. The widespread attack is exposing "the underinvestment in cybersecurity by many organizations," Loeb says. And the change it sparks could be one of the lasting legacies of the WannaCry attack. 
President-elect Donald Trump’s tough talk on trade and outsourcing might never fully translate to policy, but it can help accelerate a shift that's already begun in global manufacturing, says Smith School professor Sandor Boyson. Already, he says, enterprise globalization is beginning to be redefined by localized, end-to-end production and distribution in a single region where a product is in high demand. The emerging trend is beginning to replace an era of ferrying goods around the world from a single far-flung place. 
Research firm Gartner projects 25 billion sensor devices will be connected to the Internet of Things by 2020. This includes components in U.S. military supply chains, where counterfeiters can embed sensors to compromise national security and cause extensive economic damage. Smith School graduate Rich Fitzgerald recently wrote a guest column at Military Embedded Systems calling for the Department of Defense and its suppliers to brace for an Internet of Things revolution. 