The biggest IT security event in Europe kicks off this week with 13,000 people expected to attend Infosecurity, and I’m thrilled to be involved once again with Cisco.
I’ve been attending the show for more than a decade now and it’s always great to catch-up with all the old faces in what is a really tight-knit community.
It’s remarkable to think just over ten years ago this event felt very niche and it was confined to a handful of small discrete vendors.
In 2015 – all the big names will be there. It underlines the huge role security plays at the heart of everything we do in IT.
For me, ‘Network as an Enforcer’ is the biggest trend we will see emerge see at Infosec this week. While technology has advanced leaps and bounds, so have the criminal elements trying to breach it. The next generation weapon in this ongoing battle will be the network itself, and it can in fact be a powerful force against attackers.
With this more sophisticated threat landscape in mind, we will start shifting away from just thinking about prevention.
A number of high profile hacks are testament to the cybercrime issue as a serious threat to any business, in any industry. Now, cybercriminals are finding new and intelligent ways to breach systems and evade detection, and the complexity of cyber threats are expected to continue.
Internal threats are just as challenging, and our own research at Cisco has found employee behaviour is the second greatest risk to company data, second only to cybercrime.
It is now more important than ever to adopt a holistic approach to security, in order to address the entire attack continuum while embedding security throughout all business processes.
This is the best and only way to strengthen an organisations’ defences, and ensure the business can mitigate the impact of all types of internal and external threats; be them either imminent or already occurring. As an overall theme, this will be prevalent during this week’s conference.
Elsewhere, the proliferation of Software-defined networking (SDN) is making sweeping changes to the whole industry and this will be a hot topic on the lips of many attendees.
If you were to ask me to gaze into the crystal ball even further, I think we’ll see immense change in the next 10 years, as security becomes even more embedded across organisations and beyond IT departments.
In my opinion, we can all look forward to a world where security can be enabled a lot better, and unified architecture which is even more responsive to business need.
How can you get the most of Infosec?
For anyone heading down to the conference for the first time, you’ll be struck with how much is going on.
To maximise your time there, plan ahead in terms of the keynotes you want to watch and the stands you want to visit – there really is a lot to see!
It’s also worth researching the topics you want to explore in advance as well as the people you’d like to engage with. This means you can hit the ground running as soon as you get there.
The security marketplace is changing rapidly, so it’s important you go in with open mind, and be prepared to see or hear a different view from what you were expecting.
Enjoy the conference, and I look forward to seeing you there!
You can catch Terry speaking at Infosec on Wednesday, 3.20pm to 3.45pm at Strategy Talks, Technology is not Enough: Full Security Relies on Processes and People
Authors
