S30 Ep5: Stephen Pritchard - Insights Interview: Geopolitics and cyber threats, with the ISF's Steve Durbin

ISF Podcast

An interview with Steve Durbin, ISF CEO, by Security editor Stephen Pritchard. Originally published by Security Insights Podcast.
Cybersecurity and geopolitics are more tightly linked than ever.
The growth of online espionage, attacks by state actors, and governments turning a blind eye to cybercrime, are all increasing risk.
And the “attack surface” is growing too. More and more of what we do every day is online, and this presents more opportunities to bad actors. In a connected world, it does not take much to cause huge disruption, whether by accident or design.
The rise in ransomware over the decade shows just how vulnerable we are to cyber attack. And some of the most prolific ransomware groups have at least informal ties to nation states. But behind the scenes, the threats from state-based, not just state sanctioned, cyber attacks are growing.
This, in turn, needs a different response from organisations, and their security teams. Geopolitics is driving cybersecurity threats, in ways that could hardly be imagined in the early days of the information security business.
Our guest this week is Steve Durbin, CEO of the Information Security Forum. As he points out, a lot has changed over the last few decades, and especially in the last few years. We are now in a very risky place. And, in an increasingly connected world, cyber has the potential to be the “Achilles Heel” of our defences, he argues.
Could we see the current level of cyber threats spill over into more overt conflict? And do organisations have the resources to operate in a more dangerous world?