BOSTON—The most significant threat we face is that to our cyber security, according to former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff. 

As a guest speaker here at the PCI Annual Meeting, Chertoff said the issue of cyber risk "affects virtually every kind of enterprise." Considering different motivations—from terror plots to "hackivists," or just a disgruntled employee or customer—accidental leaks, and the continuation of the creation of access points to information, the "loss is potentially staggering," he adds. 

Countries are additionally tapping into online intellectual property to gain competitive, economic advantages, he warned. And the thing that appears to scare him most is the "very indiscriminate" manner in which probes search for information, looking for anything from business plans to embarrassing emails. 

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