Over the last 20 years the connected IT explosion has brought about a global digital revolution. However, this increasing interconnectivity through technologies such as the Internet Of Things (IoT) has raised the scope for cyber attacks exponentially.
With little global governance and patchy collaboration between countries, criminal entities have exploited technology. Knowing that penalties can be low and evading capture relatively easy, the criminals are targeting the technology for personal and financial gain.
ISIL are a key example of this new age of threat, where technology is used to their advantage for both communication through secure bespoke networks, and as a weapon, for example the hack on Tsinghua University in China.
As a global community we are at the beginning of a difficult journey. Understanding how to protect ourselves as individual countries, or indeed as individual companies will no longer be enough.
Reliance on IT infrastructure is a given in many industries today. However, with an increasingly mobile and connected workforce, keeping data secure becomes increasingly difficult. In the future, for example, we could see sophisticated targeted attacks that initially focus on a connected home appliance, but are designed to access the mobile phone linked to it, leading then to attacks on the corporate network of the phone owner.
Our collective response will require more resources from both people and financial perspective. The ‘People Factor’ should not be underestimated. Sufficiently skilled security staff will be vital. GCHQ has recognised this fact and announced its Cyber Summer Schools scheme to train the next generation of security experts. There’s no doubt that security skills will continue to be in high demand.