Corporate security worldwide is still at risk despite painful lessons learned from terrorism, the SARS epidemic and countless virus and hacker attacks, according to a business survey.
"Business leaders are more aware of security dangers, but need to do much more to prepare," research group Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) said after conducting a global poll.
The report found that very often the danger is within the company itself, with disgruntled or corrupt employees and lax controls over computer passwords compromising the security of information systems and valuable data.
In Asia, with SARS threatening a comeback, there is a new danger that companies will suffer again now that the crisis has passed and regional economies are on the upswing.
"Once the crisis was over, there was very little done to institutionalize learning and get ready for the next crisis," Hugh Bucknall, head of Mercer Human Resources Consulting in Asia, told the EIU.
"Companies need to look at a broader range of threats and have mechanisms to deal with them," he added.
Corporate security is heavily tilted towards information technology (IT) or protection of physical assets and personnel, following the 2001 terrorist attacks in the US and countless virus and hacker incidents.
But Goh Moh Heng, executive director of Disaster Recovery Institute Asia, said that "SARS created a new scenario that most planners would not have thought of: denial of access to people."
Uncertainty about how the SARS virus is transmitted forced companies to segregate employees. One bank even imported virus-proof medical "space suits" to enable IT employees to continue working even if infected by SARS.
Asian health officials fear that SARS might make a comeback during the traditional flu season in the winter months.
SARS infected more than 8,000 people and killed nearly 800, mostly in East Asia, after it appeared in southern China almost a year ago.
The crisi was estimated to have caused billions of dollars in economic damage.
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
PRESSURE EXPECTED: The appreciation of the NT dollar reflected expectations that Washington would press Taiwan to boost its currency against the US dollar, dealers said Taiwan’s export-oriented semiconductor and auto part manufacturers are expecting their margins to be affected by large foreign exchange losses as the New Taiwan dollar continued to appreciate sharply against the US dollar yesterday. Among major semiconductor manufacturers, ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光), the world’s largest integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing services provider, said that whenever the NT dollar rises NT$1 against the greenback, its gross margin is cut by about 1.5 percent. The NT dollar traded as strong as NT$29.59 per US dollar before trimming gains to close NT$0.919, or 2.96 percent, higher at NT$30.145 yesterday in Taipei trading
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