CompTIA, the Computing Technology Industry Association, has released a new whitepaper on the cybersecurity threats faced by businesses and governments. Contributors to the document include cybersecurity chiefs from global giants HP Enterprise, IBM, Protection Group International, Intrinsic and Dr James Stanger, who leads CompTIA’s cybersecurity education efforts. To download the whitepaper, click: https://www.comptia.org/resources/the-uk-cybersecurity-landscape-2017-and-beyond-a-report.
The paper, launched at CompTIA’s EMEA Conference 2017, discusses the causes and conditions that are fostering cyber-attacks. It captures insights derived from the daily experiences of cybersecurity experts on the front line. For example, it outlines how the advent of BYOD and IoT devices has increased attack surface. This, with the chronic lack of cybersecurity training for employees and the general public has led to a 164pc increase in stolen data records, or 1,901,866,611 compromised records in the first half of 2017 alone.
The paper outlines many of the key threats that are likely to emerge as criminal gangs and terror groups become more sophisticated. The short time between recent major terror and cyber-attacks – WannaCry that rendered over 40 NHS Trusts useless, and the London Bridge terror attacks – highlights how the combination of coordinated physical and virtual attacks could be catastrophic.
Despite cybersecurity making daily headlines, businesses are still guilty of neglecting it at board level. This is due to a lack of impactful, metrics-based security discussions at board level, and a reluctance to separate traditional IT from cybersecurity and privacy concerns. The whitepaper urges organisations to have both a CISO and CIO at the board level to help assess cyber risk at the same level as business risk. This approach to risk management will become more important as we edge closer to the GDPR deadline and any mistake could have a devastating financial impact.
Dr Stanger, CompTIA’s Chief Technology Evangelist, says: “We thought it was time to take stock and review the cybersecurity landscape. We’ve seen significant shifts in how organisations are attacked worldwide. We’re also seeing the impact of new privacy regulations and directives worldwide, such as GDPR. So, we’ve brought together some of the best minds in cybersecurity to help our members and businesses across the world understand the steps that they are taking to protect themselves now and into the future.”
