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hass associates review articles Think the Internet Leads to Growth? Think Again Remember the year 2000 in the months after the Y2K bug had been crushed, when all appeared smooth sailing in the global economy? When the miracle of finding information online was so novel that The Onion ran an article, "Area Man Consults Internet Whenever Possible?" It was a time of confident predictions of an ongoing economic and political renaissance powered by information technology. Jack Welch-then the lauded chief executive officer of General Electric (GE)-had suggested the Internet was "the single most important event in the U.S. economy since the Industrial Revolution." The Group of Eight highly industrialized nations-at that point still relevant-met in Okinawa in 2000 and declared, "IT is fast becoming a vital engine of growth for the world economy. … Enormous opportunities are there to be seized by us all." In a 2000 report, then-President Bill Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers suggested (PDF), "Many economists now posit that we are entering a new, digital economy that could inaugurate an unprecedented period of sustainable, rapid growth." It hasn't quite worked out that way. Indeed, if the last 10 years have demonstrated anything, it's that for all the impact of a technology like the Internet, thinking that any new innovation will set us on a course of high growth is almost certainly wrong. That's in part because many of the studies purporting to show a relationship between the Internet and economic growth relied on shoddy data and dubious assumptions. In 1999 the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland released a study that concluded (PDF), "… the fraction of a country's population that has access to the Internet is, at least, correlated with factors that help to explain average growth performance." It did so by demonstrating a positive relationship between the number of Internet users in a country in 1999 with gross domestic product g

Data breaches can have a big effect on a merger's overall value. There appears to be a worrying level of complacency toward the assessment of cyber-risks during M&A deals, despite increasing awareness of the cybersecurity risks facing businesses. International law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer found in a survey shared with Infosecurity that 90% of respondents believe cyber-breaches would result in a reduction in deal value; and 83% of dealmakers believe a deal could be abandoned if cybersecurity breaches are identified during deal due diligence or mid-transaction. Yet, too few tie-up architects are addressing the threat. A majority (78%) say that cybersecurity is not a risk that is currently analyzed in-depth or dealt with in deal due diligence. "It's surprising that dealmakers recognize the growing threat of cyber-attacks to businesses, but generally aren't addressing that risk during deals," said Chris Forsyth, co-head of the firm's international cybersecurity team. "You wouldn't dream of buying a chemicals plant without assessing environmental risk, so why would you buy a data-driven business without assessing the risks its faces around data management and cyber-security?" The firm said that the effect of a cyber-incident on value would work both ways - a business with a good track record and robust processes could be worth more than competitors, while a business with a bad track record could be worth less.