Write up about the event by Lucy Roy, Datanet’s Marketing Executive
Datanet held an interactive round table event to discuss the hot topic of I.T. security and the challenges that businesses need to overcome to mitigate against the risk of a cyber-attack.
It was a very successful event and we had a great turn out from our customers, partners and associates in the I.T. space.
Chris Gilmour, I.T security network consultant from our partner Axians, was our speaker and he made what could be perceived as a dry subject into an engaging and interesting discussion around cyber security
The talk covered many topics from next generation firewalls to DDoS mitigation and I think we all learnt a great deal about cyber security. One thing, for example, that I learnt was that whilst we talk about how to mitigate against DDoS attacks I didn’t realise that DDoS attacks can just be a distraction so that while you are dealing with the DDoS, the real purpose of the attack is happening in a completely different part of the system. It’s all a very scary prospect which is why we are so keen to educate ourselves so we won’t fall foul of an attack.
The main points that I took away with me from the day were as follows:
Point one: We all need to be thinking about I.T. security from the outset of any project so that security is built into our systems from day zero. That way we can build our I.T. infrastructure around the security rather than having to try and add a security feature to the systems already in place.
Point two: Chris Gilmour said “Data is the most valuable commodity – worth more than oil”. So, that made me think it’s worth protecting. You must, however, look at three main factors – namely risk versus cost versus impact if something should be breached. In simple terms, how much would you be willing to spend in order to protect your data and is that cost justified considering the impact of a cyber-attack on your business.
Point three: There is no one simple solution to protecting your data from cyber-attack and there needs to be many layers of I.T. security in place to make it just that little bit harder to hack into your system. The hope being that the attackers will go to the next business with less protection, which will be easier to breach and thus leave you alone.
Point four: It is impossible for a mere human to keep up with the ever-changing versions and mutations of malware so we are now enlisting the help of machines in the form of Heuristics, whereby a computer will learn the behaviour of traffic flowing in and out of a system and look for anything that is out of the norm i.e. something that could be malware.
The last point that I took away with me (and I mean no offence to anyone reading this article) is that we must think of all our users as morons who are not to be trusted i.e. never assume that common sense will prevail and do everything in your power to plug any security gaps.
In conclusion, preparation is the key, know your IT infrastructure’s weaknesses and know where the vulnerabilities lie. In this case knowledge is power – The power to implement the correct protection required.
If you would like to know more about protecting your business data you can read about the cyber security services that Datanet can provide or please call one of our team to discuss your cyber-security concerns on 01252 810010.
