Publications T.I.C. - Informatique

FOCUS 69 : Guest Editor Note by Markus Braendle, Head of Airbus CyberSecurity

FOCUS #69 – In the Guest Editor’s Note of this edition of our FOCUS magazine on Cyber Security, Markus Braendle, Head of Airbus CyberSecurity shares more on the topic.

Cybercrime has become one of the biggest threats to everyday life, not just to individuals but to industries all over the world. It’s now as complex and unpredictable as ever. To cope with the ongoing threat, organisations are moving away from simply building high walls to focused investment on forward planning, intelligence, real-time detection and response, all of which can be costly, time consuming and overwhelming.

At the other end of the network connection, highly motivated hackers are acting like entrepreneurs in a world full of opportunities. They use simulation techniques to test which methods can evade regular protection systems, for instance anti-virus software. They target smaller organisations and public administrations which have limited resources for cyber protection or have long reaction times, and reuse some of the extremely powerful cyber weapons used by governmental organisations.

On the industry side, the exponential use of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) within manufacturing has made it a prime target for cybercrime especially extortion attacks. Industry 4.0 and its use of IIoT technology for real-time data collection of production processes is Guest editor’s note creating an additional risk due to the low maturity of cyber security protection devices.

Another worrying trend is how ransomware is now a real issue for public sector organisations. With ransom sums rising dramatically in 2018, a growing number of organisations have been paying up. This isn’t sustainable, especially in the public sector, but banning ransom payments might deter extortion attacks and encourage investment in security designed to avoid them happening. Cyber-security should be assessed at board level and managed as part of an organisation’s corporate riskmanagement. Having a multi-skilled team who are able to collaborate internally and externally can also be the difference between survival or falling victim to cybercrime. No single department or organisation can fight cybercrime alone. It takes a collaborative effort from everyone in the business.

Being prepared is key to overcoming a cyber-attack. It is not easy but knowing what your organisation could potentially face is the start of putting a successful plan of action into place.