Virtual Security Summit – Impressions and Takeaways
The Virtual Security Summit that Microsoft hosted last week on March 14th, 2018, was a three hour long expertly executed fact-filled event with the latest trends in Cybersecurity, and the high level anticipated impact of GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) was discussed as well.
The panel of domain experts shared their experiences and findings in a very efficient interview setting - best practices to ensure cyber defense and cyber resiliency, innovations in cloud security, new threats to look out for in 2018, Blockchain security and more were covered!
Demand for Cybersecurity Professionals will Continue to Increase
One of the things said that sticks with me is that ‘Companies are now valued by their Cybersecurity posture’. As well, companies should be – I think this will become a factor of increasing weight when it comes to how companies are valued in general and how to govern company goodwill.
Another thing that was mentioned and that is self-evident as companies come to understand the importance of keeping their data secure – the shortage of Cybersecurity professionals will continue and the demand for talent shows no sign of slowing down in the foreseeable future.
Other Ongoing Challenges
We are all aware that IoT (Internet of Things) is an area that keeps growing exponentially and with it comes big IT security concerns, and Information Security finds itself in a constant catch up mode.
From a Cybersecurity professional’s standpoint, one of the many ongoing challenges that must be met is to prove to others that the right action has been taken, whether it is implemented safeguards or performed incident responses – presented and reported in a way that makes business sense and is easy to grasp for all stakeholders.
To keep improving as a whole, it is important to realize that Cybersecurity is a Team Sport and that each engagement should be approached as a Project.
Security Awareness Training for All
In order to tighten all aspects of security, policies and guidelines need to be relevant and as detailed as possible, in a language and delivery so that the message is clear and accessible to everyone concerned. Proper channels of how to propagate such information need to be established and clearly understood as well - Security Awareness Training is a big part of this and a crucial ingredient to a healthy IT security stance.
Blockchain set to Revolutionize Business
Another prediction that was made is that Blockchain Technology is going to change business in the same massive way that Public Internet has – basically no one could foresee the rise of business models like Uber and Airbnb – one of the main challenges being to understanding how value gets created in a decentralized economy.
The Cloud
All flavors of cloud hosting solutions are increasingly trusted and adopted in general, becoming widely accepted as a more secure alternative to having everything ‘in-house’ – I expect this will be hotly debated for a long time still!
GDPR awaits Around the Corner
GDPR will be in effect May 25, 2018, and the fines for not complying are steep. Any company that stores or handles PII (Personally Identifiable Information) about an EU citizen is affected. The consensus is that any company affected should do some level of compliance audit to ensure due diligence and care, even though it may seem like ‘everything is in place already’.
There are tons of useful ‘GDPR preparedness guides’ available on the net – now is the time to get familiar with it.
In Conclusion
It was a successful event, well worth attending.
On another note - please join my newly started LinkedIn Group if you’re interested in Cybersecurity and IT Security in general – and let’s start a conversation!
IT SPoKE - IT Security | Cybersecurity | PM | Knowledge HUB
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12056227
Mats Nygren, CISSP, PMP, ITIL
mats.h.nygren@it-spoke.com