Continent 8 sent Justin Cosnett (Chief Product Officer), Leon Allen (Cybersecurity Director) and Craig Lusher (Senior Product Specialist – Secure) from its UK-based team to the International Cyber Expo 2022 at Olympia London, co-located with the International Security Expo.
Described as the perfect meeting place for CISOs, CTOs, MDs, business owners, cybersecurity specialists and end-users, the event showcased exhibitors promoting their latest cyber products as well as an education programme discussing the latest technology and services that protect the digital and physical future of businesses.
Reflecting on the jam-packed event, Justin (JC), Craig (CL) and Leon (LA) share their key learnings and takeaways.
What did you enjoy most about the show?
LA: It was great to see the International Cyber Expo co-located with the International Security Expo. This meant attendees could discover the latest physical security solutions for end users and government, as well as have the opportunity to learn about the newest innovations within cybersecurity. This made for a fascinating event, with a clear focus.
JC: It was a brilliant opportunity to speak to partners, vendors and competitors and see how they are positioning their cybersecurity offering. It was also great to understand what they are emphasising to the customer and what they think are the hot topics now and in the future.
It was a fun show, especially seeing physical security such as drone defence systems, etc. in action.
Who was your favourite speaker and why?
LA: Prof Victoria Baines, IT Livery Company Professor of IT at Gresham College, gave an engaging and very relevant talk titled ‘Cybersecurity’s Image Problem [and what we can all do about it]’.
Professor Baines explained that purveyors of ransomware, IT vendors and internal IT teams all present cyber issues in the same way i.e., with “amplification” and “urgency”. A simple Google image search for cybersecurity all shows the same iconography: i.e., blue, binary, padlocks and the anonymous figure.
Instead of using this, we need to empower people with the information they need and let them make their own decisions on what products to use to protect themselves.
CL: I liked the ‘Attack Tree Analysis: Identifying and ranking cyberattack paths’ session by Martin Watford, a Technical Consultant at Isograph.
It was an interesting talk that described how risk and probabilities are assigned to individual components in a cyberattack and how the sum of these creates a probability or likelihood that an exploit will happen. It can also predict the path of least resistance the would-be attacker is likely to take.
An outdated component, for example, may not be risky on its own, but coupled with an exploited access mechanism will increase the risk and probability of an attack. An initiating event, such as a hacker gaining access to a network, coupled with multiple vulnerabilities, will make the risk and probability higher.
What one thing did you learn that will most influence how you or the business view cybersecurity going forward?
CL: I learnt that accepting risk, and understanding what risk is being accepted, is as much about cyber security as it is the services that protect systems. Not everything can be 100% protected and cyber security is about balancing risk vs cost of protection.
JC: It was evident at the show that there are some differences between vendors and what they offer vs what they can deliver. To me, a supplier with a broad catalogue of products to meet several or most requirements has an overall advantage.
What cybersecurity innovation or game-changing product are you most excited about?
CL: While not a game-changer, vulnerability reporting as a product is something that Continent 8 could consider adding to its multi-layered Secure solution.
JC: For me, it was hearing about proactive threat hunting within backups – it sounds so simple and intuitive and yet when it comes to ransomware and hacking, it’s a logical place to look for variation and uniqueness and be able to quarantine and respond. The coordination of that capability in a SIEM/SOC would be incredibly powerful.
Protecting sensitive information and mission-critical applications is an essential and ongoing effort. At Continent 8 we employ a defensive, in-depth approach to security with safeguards that encompass all of our people, processes and technologies.
Learn more about Continent 8’s Secure offering here: www.continent8.com/solutions/secure
