An Erosion trust, and a lack of situational awareness, are continuing to harm advancements in cybersecurity and digital transformation.
Speaking at NTT Security’s Information Security World event in London, Thales CTO Jason Hart reflected upon the journey of 50 million users to radio, television, internet and, most recently, the Pokemon Go app. He likened this journey to the transformation of businesses for data and digital services, as “this is happening to every part of the organization.”
Hart said that “innovation is not about new technology, it is about taking the user experience and making it easier to consume.” This can lead to “habit forming” which has both positive and negative impacts, and this should challenge businesses to make technology “easier and simpler.”
However, data breaches have led to an erosion of trust, and Hart said that “we cannot solve problems using the same thinking” as we invest money in cybersecurity products and services, yet breaches continue to happen. “The approach has not evolved, we are getting there, and I can see an improvement,” he said.
Hart predicted that we will continue to have a “major problem regarding the integrity of data” as we have the “perfect storm of more data, children born into a data world, and yet we still see breaches.” Hart argued that this can be eradicated quickly by realizing situational awareness, and for businesses to realize which of the following they fit into:
- Situational aware – understand critical elements of data, people and process
- Situational ignorance – not looking or considering impact of people, data and processes
- Situational arrogance – consideration of people, data and process, however no action is taken
“Be situationally aware and look to the needs of the organization and of the user, as different users have different needs,” he concluded, recommending businesses to mitigate risks and consider these across technology, humans and processes.