Intelligent CISO Issue 07 | Page 51

COVER STORY nd-user CI SO CISOs at modern enterprises face more challenges than ever before as they work against a backdrop of ever-evolving cyberthreats. Jaya Baloo, CISO at Netherlands-based KPN Telecom, is uniquely placed to offer end user insight into the challenges faced by global security professionals and what the future threatscape looks like. | Issue 07 KP N Tele com INSPIRING THE NEW GENERATION OF CISOS D riven by a desire to understand the difference between mistakes in programming and intentional malicious behaviour after receiving a computer for Christmas at the age of nine, Jaya Baloo admits that her interest in cybersecurity started young. Fast forward a little and you’ll now find Baloo listed as a top 100 CISO and a regular guest speaker at the world’s highest-profile cybersecurity events – often speaking about quantum computing, a topic about which she is keen to raise global awareness. www.intelligentciso.com of people who actually understand what they need to do versus just buying into every single vendor pitch,” she said. “There is an overload of security vendor pitches at the moment because information security, maybe for the last two or three years, has been seen as ‘hot’ and I think that brings about a ‘market for lemons’ with the general population not being able to understand what quality is and that is a concern.” On cyberthreats to the telecommunications sector Changes in the cybersecurity sector The ‘goal’ of attackers is what sets telecommunications infrastructure apart from other critical infrastructure, she says. Over two decades in the industry, Baloo has been privy to several changes, most notably that she no longer needs to convince anyone of the importance of good cybersecurity practice. “The target setting for state-sponsored attackers is not to bring it down so much as to be hooked into crevices and intercept traffic without being discovered,” she said. “What I do still find, however, is that there’s an ocean of distance between “That’s not the same for other critical infrastructure providers. Energy 51