Avatu MD tells UK business leaders how to fight cyber crime on a battleground where they can win.
Our managing director, Joe Jouhal has advised business leaders on the dangers of relying on outmoded cyber security strategies or thinking you can avoid attack by staying under the radar.
Joe's advice is featured in the UK Cyber Security special edition in this week's New Statesman, the well-known national business news and politics magazine.
Joe explained that a new mindset is needed to protect businesses from cyber and insider breaches of IT security.
He said that an over-reliance on 'perimeter defences' such as firewalls and anti-malware tools was putting businesses at risk.
Organisations are more risk aware - and risk management savvy - if they put detection, rather than prevention, at the centre of their cyber and IT security strategy.
By using detection as the cornerstone of the strategy, companies could fight cyber criminals (and rogue or reckless insiders) on a battleground where they could win.
"In the past, most organisations have concentrated on preventing a breach. But digging the moat and building the walls high is outmoded these days. The cyber threat landscape is much more severe, damaging and sophisticated now," said Joe.
"When there are more than 17,000 cyber attacks a day, we’re kidding ourselves if we think we can stop anything and everything. I certainly wouldn't bet my reputation on it. And I'm amazed other people, some in very senior positions, still do."
Joe added: "James Comey, the FBI chief, said there are two kinds of companies in the US: those who know they've been hacked, and those who've been hacked but don't know it. I'm in no doubt the UK situation is similar.
"An organisation that acknowledges a breach has probably already happened is more risk-savvy than one with a strategy based on keeping the marauding masses at bay."
See the full New Statesman cyber special here. Joe's interview is on page seven.