Assesing Cyber Security Threats and Opportunities at the UKCC Leeds Meeting

The UK Channel Community descended upon Leeds on 24 February for its first UKCC meetup of the year. For the first time, a UKCC meeting was dedicated to one topic,cyber security, and featured speakers from various areas within the sector. With cyber security so high up on the national agenda, there has never been a better time to learn about how the channel can turn cyber threats into business opportunities.

The first session was led by David Benford, managing director of Blackstage Forensics, a UK-based security consultancy. David opened the day by highlighting the dangers of social media to businesses, explaining how easy it is to acquire information on individuals by the posts they make, pictures they upload and the geo-data hidden in their updates. He ran through how you can quickly determine someone’s routines, interests and relationships from publicly available data through search engines, as well as how easy it can be for potential hackers or criminals to exploit this information for their own means. You can find more detail about his keynote speech in our UKCC Leeds preview blog here.

John McLaughlin, EMEA channel account manager at Webroot, led one of three of the morning’s breakout sessions on best practices for security in today’s modern threat landscape. He touched on the dangers of crypto-ransomware, and how it has evolved to outpace the tools once used to decrypt compromised files. John also explained how major vulnerabilities commonly occur. To protect against them, his best practice tips are to back up your data, multiple times, to help limit the effects of ransomware, and to also keep your apps updated.

These themes were echoed by David Emm, senior security researcher at Kaspersky Lab. He also revealed some chilling statistics detailing how the threat landscape has changed. Since the first recorded malware arrived in 1994, we’ve seen the number of threats grow exponentially, from one new virus every minute in 2006, to 310,000 new samples every day in 2016.

New vectors of attack are always emerging, particularly as new technology like the Internet of Things takes hold. Anything from smart meters to children’s toys can now be digital. Today’s Barbies are Wi-Fi enabled, and connect to the cloud, and can be used as a method for a hacker to break into a network. There are a multitude of methods that hackers use, from application exploits, social networks, emails and USBs, all of which we need to be aware of if we are to take cyber security seriously and mitigate the risks.

Jenny Radcliffe, director at negotiation intelligence, ended the day with a distinctly human angle to security. While the day primarily focused on digital threats, Jenny explored how social engineering is a huge factor in cyber security. She outlined how all cyber security breaches have a human factor to them, where an individual within an organisation will be targeted by manipulators whose goal is to obtain access to otherwise secure areas. Using a combination of fear, flattery, greed and timing, people can be manipulated into doing things that they would normally never do: hand over personal details or critical business information. And a word of warning: if you think this doesn’t apply to you, you’re probably the ideal target.

The event was a truly eye-opening experience, with the breadth of cyber security threats laid bare for all to see. As a concern that's climbing up businesses’ agendas, it has never been more pressing to spread the word about these potential risks, and to educate end users on how to avoid them. The channel has an important role to play in shaping customer security through best practices, and there are vast opportunities for businesses that can deliver in this field. To find out more about some of the ways that the channel can take advantage of these opportunities, click here.