The unfortunate thing is that how Berkshire Hathaway decides it wants to handle the issue of cyber risk ends up impacting far more than Berkshire Hathaway. Buffet is so admired and Berkshire Hathaway such a giant player in risk and insurance, that his words impact everyone’s security.

Warren Buffet may be old, but he continues to be held in the highest of esteem by investors. He certainly has a great track record. Buffet is also admired because of his openness and candid discussion of his methods and stock picks. He’s always sworn by a long term investing strategy, which values not only growth but stability. His disciplined approach has been the key to great success.

For this reason, when he speaks, the investing and business world listen. He’s been called the Oracle Of Ohama. When his Berkshire Hathaway group holds its annual shareholders meeting, some investing companies take the day off and gather to watch the whole thing with the enthusiasm and fanfare of the Superbowl.

When Warren Buffet speaks, the financial world listens. The insurance world also listens, because Berkshire Hathaway has become one of the biggest players in insurance. The group recently purchased a large portion of Chubb, one of the largest providers of cyber risk coverage.

This is a problem, because when someone so influential speaks about something so important, they had better be correct, and in this case, he is dead wrong. I do not mean to criticize Mr. Buffet personally, of course, but it’s important to bring attention to this. As an expert in this area, I find his comments to be absolutely terrifying.

The reason it’s so terrifying is the impact that these comments, and others like it, from other business leaders, has caused to national security and the global economy. Insurance vital to how a capitalist economy self regulates and how risk is properly priced. Insurance is the bedrock of how risks are treated in the economy.

The unfortunate thing is that this very ignorance is at the root of the stagnation of cyber defenses, the layoffs of so many in the sector, the divestment of resources and the acceptance of such dire levels of loss. It’s terrible to think that anyone so followed could be actively telling people that cyber security is a mystery nobody has figured out. If that were the case, it would be pointless to spend on it and hire experts.

Shortly after this meeting, a large number of cyber security professionals were laid off.