Theo Van Wyk
Chief Technology Officer – Security, Scalar Decisions
In a fast-paced digital environment with more frequent and sophisticated cyber attacks and severe breaches, Canadian businesses are beginning to take cyber resilience more seriously. Theo Van Wyk, Scalar Decisions’ Chief Technology Officer – Security, discusses the importance of building a culture of resilience to tackle the cybersecurity challenges of modern workplaces.
Mediaplanet: What are some of the main cybersecurity challenges faced in modern workplaces?
Theo Van Wyk: One of the underpinning challenges that modern workplaces face is the new way employees (both in a personal and professional capacity) use technology and IT services. Concepts such as mobile workforces and cloud-based services are driving change in every aspect of cybersecurity.
As organizations become more reliant on computer systems, the ability to proactively detect and respond to threats (as opposed to a reactive approach) becomes more important and more challenging.
It naturally follows that employee awareness training is vital in ensuring cybersecurity and resiliency. Cultivating better digital citizens benefits employees both at home and at work, and in turn benefits the organization.
What does it mean for an organization to be cyber-resilient?
Cyber resilience refers to an organization’s ability to detect and respond to cyber threats in a timely and effective manner in order to continue or rapidly resume operations while recovering to a trusted state in the event of a cyberattack or breach.
Cyber resilience considers both traditional cybersecurity and business resilience and risk.
Cyber-resilient organizations can detect and respond to cyberattacks or breaches in a timely and effective manner to allow operations to continue or rapidly resume while also being able to recover back to a trusted and secure state.
What are some of the priorities and objectives that Canadian decision-makers should have in order to build a culture of resilience within their company?
To build a culture of resilience, organizations should have the following priorities and objectives, at minimum:
- A clear understanding of how services are consumed and how systems and data are used within the organization
- An understanding of the corresponding risk to the business should the identified system, service, or data be compromised
- An understanding of how attackers would go about targeting the organization based on the above and an understanding of how to prioritize security spend accordingly
- A plan to train employees in security best practices and to foster a sense of ownership in their role in protecting the organization from threats. Tools and processes are important, but employees are both the first and last line of defence in many cases
How are Scalar Decisions’ solutions uniquely positioned to tackle the complex challenges of a fast-paced cyber environment with increasing risks and threats?
Scalar is a full managed services provider and has extensive experience assisting customers nationally with security, infrastructure, and cloud services. We accomplish this through our:
- Consulting expertise
- Deep technical bench
- Training programs
- Best-of-breed partners and product offerings
- Comprehensive solutions based on clients’ business assets and requirements
