Cyber criminals are innovating faster than businesses

The majority (83%) of respondents to the latest Twitter poll from Infosecurity Europe 2019 – Europe’s number one information security event – believe that organisations are not innovating as quickly as the cyber criminals who plan to attack them. This indicates that security strategies and solutions are not being evolved fast enough to defend businesses against the ever-changing and increasingly sophisticated threats they face. An inability to innovate rapidly also points to a lack of agility and responsiveness, which will inhibit a business’s growth.

Victoria Windsor, Group Content Manager at Infosecurity Group, says: “Cyber security innovation is vital if businesses are to stay one step ahead of cyber attackers, who are constantly honing their own techniques. It’s also an important driver of competitive advantage – security is no longer seen as a function that ‘puts the brakes’ on a business’s endeavours to move forward, in the interests of protecting it. Businesses must therefore urgently invest in building their capacity for innovation, by developing their people and creating an environment in which new ideas can flourish.”

Infosecurity Europe has introduced the FutureSec programme for 2019 specifically to help the industry boost its innovation capability. This will be the hub for a series of events and sessions designed to help businesses enhance their people’s skillsets, to provide start-ups with the knowledge they need to grow, and to support individuals in planning their careers.

Also new is LaunchPad, an interactive ‘one-stop-shop’ area where visitors can browse information on all the innovative products on display at the show. Those seeking to find out what the most exciting SMEs and disruptive young companies have to offer, meanwhile, should head to the Discovery Zone and the Start-Up Zone.

Maxine Holt, Research Director at Ovum, will be speaking on the Keynote Stage on 5^th June. She emphasises that there is some fantastic innovation happening within the industry, particularly among technology vendors: “They’re putting time and effort into innovation, and working as partners with customers to identify use cases, and this is a step forward in the battle to keep organisations safe. But the more sophisticated attackers – organised criminal groups and nation states in particular – have huge budgets, time on their hands, and incredible technical ability. Although they might not necessarily be faster at innovating than vendors, they are likely to be faster than the enterprises being targeted.”

The Infosecurity Europe poll also asked respondents what will be the most important skill for the next generation of security professionals. Almost half (46%) predicted that this will be threat intelligence. A quarter (24%) opted for quantum computing, 21% for knowledge of AI and machine learning, and 9% for DevSecOps.

David Edwards, Head of Information Security in the financial sector, will deliver a Deep Dive on Geek Street on 5^th June. He believes the skills that matter most will not be related to technology. “Security professionals will need communication, problem solving and teamworking skills,” he says. “The ability to explain complex issues in terms that the business and other technical colleges can understand is important.”

Respondents were also asked to vote on which area of cybersecurity is seeing the most exciting innovation. Threat intelligence came out on top for 29% of respondents, closely followed by AI/machine learning (25%), IoT (24%) and blockchain (22%).

Andrew Rose, Chief Security Officer at Mastercard company Vocalink, says: “I think AI and machine learning are two elements that offer tremendous hope. The ability to recognise outlier events, edge cases and subtle behaviour change, and then automate responses, will help the industry deal with huge volumes of data, find key events and tackle them before they become incidents.”