COVER STORY nd-user
HOW BT DRIVES SECURITY FROM A NECESSITY TO A BEACON OF BUSINESS RESPONSIBILITY
Steve Benton , BT Deputy CISO , GM Cyber and Physical Security Operations and Programmes , tells us how the company operates with full control over its complex IT estates and explains how the major telecom provider functions in a way that aims to make cyberattacks worthless for those targeting the business .
Steve Benton
cCan you give an overview of your role at BT and the scope of your responsibility ?
My job is to ensure that BT can detect , protect and recover from cyber and physical attacks in the UK and across the globe . This means looking after our people , data , infrastructure and buildings across both the real and virtual world .
Of course , this is an extremely difficult task . The scale and pace of threats are constantly growing , especially as criminals continue to realise the returns that can be made at relatively low risk . At the same time , we ’ ve seen nation state activities increase and expand , with huge effects , and more ‘ traditional ’ lone hacktivists are as busy as ever .
Ultimately , we ’ re in a constant race between cyberdefence and cyberattack , and to be successful in my role I have to make attacks against BT expensive , dangerous and worthless for our adversaries .
How does BT exercise cybersecurity to ensure it operates with a robust infrastructure ?
BT is on the receiving end of an average of around 6,500 attacks every day , so we have to use all the tools at our disposal to protect our operations , people and customers .
We employ a proactive security strategy that holistically monitors and scans for any threats across our estate . As part of this , we enact multiple layers of protection to identify and stop attackers , and use AI and Machine Learning capabilities to hugely improve our ability to detect anomalies and predict threats , significantly reducing the time taken to respond to attacks .
We know , though , that there is no such thing as 100 % security and that criminals will constantly invest and innovate to create new attacks . That ’ s why we run regular ‘ black swan ’ events to test our defences and see how they really stack up against a cyberattack . We also make use of our excellent Offensive Security team , who we give the remit and latitude to stress test all aspects of our security .
How would you suggest organisations can gain control of complex IT systems and ensure security is the responsibility of the business ?
Visibility of your IT estate is absolutely key . Most organisations have grown organically over time , adopting a mix of systems from a range of vendors , which makes it hard to fully identify your vulnerabilities and risks . After all , if you don ’ t know what you have , how can you protect it ?
This often becomes a critical issue when a significant security incident happens in the news , and ‘ do we have one of those ?’ becomes the most common refrain . Taking clear steps to assess your assets ( not just the devices and systems , www . intelligentciso . com
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