In March 2014 Russian president Vladimir Putin gave a speech at the Kremlin following Russia’s annexation of Crimea. He said: “If you compress the spring all the way to its limit, it will snap back hard. You must always remember this”. The compressing of the spring, in this case, was the perceived threat of an increasingly Western-leaning Ukraine and former Soviet states joining NATO. The snap back saw Russia take Crimea, starting a military … [Read more...]
Cybersecurity: the knock-on cost of digital efficiency
The oil and gas market slump of 2015 brought extra pressure to bear on majors to reduce their breakeven barrel price. The quest for deeper efficiencies included a tidal shift toward digitalisation. According to Gaurav Sharma, vulnerable systems are in urgent need of upgrading and require constant protection at an estimated cost of $40 billion plus per annum. With existential external factors already putting the squeeze on investment, the growing … [Read more...]
