Hi, enjoy this weeks curated risk and business updates.
Weighing the Risks
Electric Vehicles - An Industry in Turmoil
The past year has been a roller coaster for the electric vehicle industry. Soaring rare earth mineral prices, chip shortages and vehicle demand exceeding available inventory marked the beginning of 2023. EV sales in the U.S. are expected to set a new record, accounting for about 9% of all passenger vehicle sales in 2023 and will likely exceed 1 million vehicles in 2023 for the first time.
However, EV demand is limping to the finish line and further challenges remain on the horizon. “The industry had lulled itself into a false belief that EVs were a relative slam dunk—that, as if we were heading into an automobile version of “Field of Dreams," consumers would snap up electric vehicles as long as carmakers delivered them. Instead, apart from robust demand for EVs made by Tesla and Byd, consumers have remained stubbornly ambivalent” according to The Information.
Industry challenges also include quality and reliability. In a study covering covering more than 330,000 EVs, Consumer Reports research revealed that EVs built in the past 3 years have 79% more problems than traditional internal combustion engine vehicles.
The Electric: In 2024, a New Reality for the EV and Battery Industries
Potential change in U.S. presidency could be detrimental to current tax breaks and EV-friendly policy
Supposed new age of EVs in doubt as demand for EVs slows
Largest hurdle for the EV industry is establishing a feasible and convenient charging infrastructure
Access to Tesla’s superchargers, or NACS, seen as only a temporary solution to the current lack of EV charging infrastructure
Weekly Highlights
Companies should:
Secure access to SaaS tools using Single Sign-On (SSO)
Expose shadow IT infrastructure and purchases, especially through employee expense monitoring.
Weigh the risk/reward benefit: SaaS costs can be far outweighed by the risk in utilizing that service in a technology stack - for example, a SaaS tool that costs $100/ year, could carry $100,000 worth of risk to the organization.
Frontier AI Regulation: Managing Emerging Risks to Public Safety
Leading AI models pose an ever-increasing level of risk that rises in step with the advancing capabilities of AI frameworks
Regulation for AI needs to be robust and flexible enough to adapt to changing capabilities, to do this the monitoring, clearing/approval, and compliance procedures need defined inroads into AI in use and a “supervisory authority” to monitor and ensure compliance
Why Visibility Is A Crucial Component Of SaaS Security
Companies should:
Secure access to SaaS tools using Single Sign-On (SSO)
Expose shadow IT infrastructure and purchases, especially through employee expense monitoring. Understand how new SaaS tools and vendors can enter your technology stack
Weigh the risk/reward balance - SaaS costs can be far outweighed by carried risk in utilizing that service in a technology stack - for example, a SaaS tool that costs $100/ year, could carry $100,000 worth of risk to the organization.
Conduct risk assessments of new tools and vendors
Frontier AI Regulation: Managing Emerging Risks to Public Safety
Leading AI models pose an ever-increasing level of risk that rises in step with the advancing capabilities of AI frameworks
Regulation for AI needs to be robust and flexible enough to adapt to changing capabilities, to do this the monitoring, clearing/approval, and compliance procedures need defined inroads into AI in use and a “supervisory authority” to monitor and ensure compliance
Why Your CFO Should Focus On Security
Holistic and regular risk assessments are critical for CFOs and risk committees to monitor, mitigate, and forecast company risks
It is important to prioritize “high-likelihood, high-consequence” risks in addition to ensuring unlikely outlier cases are avoided
Walmart Stops Ads on X, Joining the Advertising Exit
Following Elon Musk’s comments regarding the conflict between Israel and Palestine, many advertisers, such as Walmart, are pulling advertisements from X (formerly known as Twitter)
Walmart claims this is not due to Musk’s statements but rather their organic performance on the platform is exceeding expectations
Other large advertisers cited unfavorable ad placement next to controversial posts as reasons for pausing their ad spend