As the dawn of information age arises, human beings have become completely reliant on technology and the fundamental benefits technology brings to mankind. Technology has made the world a smaller, more inclusive and more interconnected place. It has enabled social growth, improved education and healthcare and generated a shift in the capability of countries and companies to compete on the world stage.
This has led to exponential growth in connected devices, the use of applications on these devices and the rise in cloud computing. We are a part of an environment where we are inherently using a global supply chain whilst being connected by global interconnected telecommunications infrastructures with technology being provided by a wide range of ICT vendors in your daily personal and business lives.
Amidst, the monumental personal, social and enterprise-oriented benefits that we have realized as a result of the digital and broadband revolutions, age-old real-world evils ranging from vandalism, theft and disruption to espionage and wilful destruction have naturally gravitated to the new digital environment. These evils are use the technology for purposes it was never intended, to steal, corrupt and damage technology and infrastructure
Not a day goes by that we do not read or hear politically - or competitor-inspired negative commentary about cyber security. While worry about breaches of cyber security is understandable and legitimate, the rhetoric risks distracting from the wide range of challenges our industry faces.
Achieving an effective, global, industry-wide solution is going to demand sober and fact-based dialogue, not just commercial or political jousting.
In a world where over 87% of the planet's population are mobile users, where the Apple App Store has seen over25 billion downloads, and where the downloads of Google Play Application Store have exceeded 20 billion, the stark reality is that cyber security is a growing global challenge demanding rational and universal solutions.
The emergence of new services such as VOIP IMS and the network infrastructure have further raised new concerns about security. As governments, enterprises and consumers have become increasingly reliant on ICT solutions that integrate inputs designed, developed, coded and manufactured by multiple suppliers around the world, the scale of the cyber security challenge has grown exponentially.
Without a doubt, there is a need for everyone to consider the issue of technology security, as part of the larger risk environment in which we live and work. The world has become increasingly interconnected and as governments, enterprises and consumers have become more reliant on technology, the scale of the challenge has become significantly greater. Uncertainty about being able to securely communicate and access online data and applications has created disorder and confusion and played with the faith of users.
The world has probably lost more confidential records than there are people on the planet, and it is easy to get the impression that there are more breaches of security each year than there are drops of rain in a storm. Barely a day goes by without a report of a potential critical infrastructure in some part of the world being attacked (or having the potential for attack) by cyber criminals.
As we deploy more technology, connect more technology, use more technology and share more technology, we are becoming more blasé about personal and corporate data and the technology we use.
This naivety represents a dangerous disrespect for the importance of data to our daily lives, which in itself fuels an increase in security risks. This gives rise need of cyber security to ensure that trust is maintained and relationships, processes and approaches continually evolve to meet the digital challenges of the 21st century.
Approaches to cyber security were originally developed to protect networks and data, evolving in recent decades to the fight against cybercrime and other online malicious activity. Cybercrime is the same as any other kind of crime- there is a culprit and a victim.
For a cybercrime to be successful, like any other crime, it needs the motive, the opportunity and the means. Prior to the Internet age, only a few people knew how to use computers and there was little reason to "assault" them. Today, the Internet can be easily accessed from a mobile device in your pocket, so the means and the opportunity have therefore greatly increased. Now nearly everyone is connected and there are many ways to use cyberspace both for private and commercial use - for good motives and for bad.
Moving beyond cities and countries, cyber security has become global issue. The transfer and process of data is a global activity and data flow does not respect national boundaries or the territorial jurisdictions of governments or courts; an Internet search in the US could be processed by a server in the US, or a server in Europe or even in Asia. However, legal and regulatory systems are based on such boundaries and jurisdictions, which pose a major problem to all multi-national businesses engaged in the processing and transferring of data.
All stakeholders - governments and industry alike -need to recognize that cyber security is a shared global problem requiring risk-based approaches, best practices and international cooperation to address the challenge. Cyber security continues to be an issue of intense interest to r customers and governments, and vendors alike. It is only by working together internationally, as vendors, customers and policy and law makers will we make a substantial difference in addressing the global cyber security challenge.
A regular share of knowledge and understanding of what works and what doesn't work to reduce the risk of people using technology for purposes never intended. There is a need for coordinated international approach to principles of data protection and cyber security. An approach that will foster better overall standards of data protection on a global basis, rather than having vendors, service providers and corporations struggle to apply inconsistent standards and approaches across various countries.