Dave Kennedy
Founder & Senior Principal Security Consultant, TrustedSec
Dave Kennedy, Founder and Senior Principal Security Consultant at TrustedSec, explores North America’s current cybersecurity landscape and how organizations can stay resilient.
Mediaplanet: What’s the critical role that a sound cybersecurity infrastructure plays in enabling an organization’s success and competitiveness?
Dave Kennedy: Technology continues to be integrated into every aspect of our lives. From smart devices connected within our homes to every major business in the world now being interconnected, our reliance on technology has never been greater. With that, organizations are starting to realize that in order to do business in a technological world, it’s important to protect the business from cyber threats.
Security is no longer a luxury — it’s how organizations need to do business if they’re leveraging anything from a technology footprint. Having a solid foundation around infrastructure and designing security from the early stages allows organizations to be more flexible when it comes to business objectives and move faster enabling the business versus bolting it on after the fact.
What are some of the innovative ways to build upon traditional cybersecurity processes?
Most organizations think of security as an afterthought during a major acquisition or after a product has already been developed, when it should be designed and architected beforehand. Some of the most effective cybersecurity programs we’ve seen focus more on proactive identification of threats and building out infrastructure that can last long term.
In regard to direct threats, it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to protect everything within your organization, especially with more interconnected systems and cloud-driven infrastructure. Focusing on the identification of threats earlier on versus later down the road when a breach occurs can help drastically. A big shift in the industry right now is on monitoring and detection, and frankly in today’s age, that’s one of the most important pillars of a cybersecurity program.
Security is no longer a luxury — it’s how organizations need to do business if they’re leveraging anything from a technology footprint.
What are some of the main factors shaping the cybersecurity landscape in North America?
The demographics of attackers are continuing to change, and morph based on the defensive strategies of companies. Ransomware, business email compromises, nation states, organized crime, and more all have skin in the game when it comes to the impact they can have on North America. Sophistication is one of the biggest drivers for shaping how cybersecurity programs are designed and how to best protect intellectual property, customer information, health and safety, and more.
As attackers get more complex with how they’re targeting organizations, our defences must match or far exceed the capabilities of attackers. Most organizations unfortunately are still aren’t doing enough when it comes to cybersecurity and we’ll continue to see a number of security breaches occur.
