Intelligent CISO Issue 22 | Page 21

cyber trends and more username and password pairs are out there. balance to enable employees in a way that works for them.” “Or we might reach a tipping point where organisations decide they need to block some login attempts that have the right username and the right password but are not coming from the right person. In the US, enforcement cases are being brought against ‘corporate victims’ of credential stuffing. It’ll either get worse, or organisations will have to adapt.” Some CISOs believe that solutions will come from the industry working more closely together. “I believe we will start to see greater collaboration between security companies, hopefully resulting in greater end-to-end security capability,” said Nicholls. When it comes to the security approaches that will mitigate the risks which dominate in 2020, David Boda, Head of Information Security, Camelot Group believes ‘back to basics’ is best. “A focus on robust and timely access control and patching will still give the biggest reduction in risk for the majority of organisations across all sectors. These are the two areas that vendors, consultants and end-user organisations should all be talking about.” Killian Faughnan, Group CISO of William Hill, agrees that access control will be important – particularly in the next- generation workplace. “Access control is difficult to solve without being either too restrictive or too lenient. Given that in 2020, 35% of our workforce will be millennials, we need to find the right Gooch thinks convergence will be a key trend: “2020 could see a number of high-profile mergers and acquisitions as well an expansion and formalisation of vendors into a more converged world. This is likely to be similar to the ERP revolution that transformed the way many finance and operations teams function and could mean a more efficient operational model for those in cyber.” We must continue to educate to ensure humans are our strongest line of defence. Two topics that were ‘hot’ in 2018/2019 are not front of mind with our CISOs this year. One of these is the skills shortage. Killian Faughnan commented: “I think we may have hit a critical point and that more companies will begin to recruit from pools of potential security professionals rather than existing ones. It’s easier to teach a developer how to be an application security professional than the other way around.” There was also less focus on GDPR, probably due to the fact that the regulation and its impact are no longer the unknown they once were. Paul Watts, CISO, Dominos Pizza UK and Ireland, has observed signs of ‘breach apathy’ and wonders whether 2020 will see a continuation of this trend. “While this could be attributed in part to political distractions, I do think industry seems to be reporting more, but are the public caring less? I’m still reflecting on whether this is a blessing or a curse for CISOs. . . .” Nicole Mills, Senior Exhibition Director at Infosecurity Group, said: “2020 will see the continuation of some long-standing trends, challenges and security risks. For example, a number of technologies that have been talked about for some time will become more widely adopted and we need to be ready to implement, use and protect these in an appropriate way. “There was less emphasis on the skills shortage and GDPR in our CISOs’ predictions this year, but we do need to remember that these challenges haven’t gone away. “The ‘talent gap’ is still growing and we need to continue working together as an industry to find solutions. And while GDPR is not the burning issue it was last year, organisations can’t rest on their laurels; if they’re compliant, they need to work to stay compliant. It’s not just the fines, keep top of mind that brand and reputation can take years to redress.” u www.intelligentciso.com | Issue 22 21