“Rethink Reskill Reboot” — Really?
As someone who worked in cyber for 7 years and understands the exponential threat to our digital lives, both personal and business, to our democracy and to our bank balances, the Government did make a ‘ricket’ here. The Rethink Reskill Reboot campaign went viral with dozens of memes poking fun at various political figures, in support of the Arts and the now fabled and famous, Fatima.
Fatima R U OK? R U OK Fatima?
In April 2018 I was attending the RSA conference in San Francisco, a large gathering (40000+) of the great and the good from cyber security around the world. One of the major talking points 2 years ago was around the skills shortage in Cyber security, hundreds of thousands of unfilled jobs across the industry.
Another key takeaway was when one executive from a major tech giant said:
“it is great that we all get to meet up with old friends and make new ones at this, but we are not doing our jobs. The bad guys are winning”.
Sadly, he is correct.
APT?
Acronyms dominate the tech world, especially in cyber, but what does APT mean? It stands for Advanced Persistent Threat, or to put it another way, nation state hacking. What does this actually mean? Countries who wish to disrupt our political processes/divide and conquer (think the Joker from Batman); or steal our Intellectual Property for their own economic advantage; or the plain old, extort companies for money/ransom following a ransomware attack to help balance the books.
The Fifth Domain
What we have observed within the cyber security space in the last 2–3 years has been a switch from purely defensive tactics, to offensive measures. Previously was the classic game of Pong — one side trying to gain access to the target, while the target was in defensive mode only. But now, that playbook also includes counter measures, going after the cyber aggressor.
“(A) leading, full-spectrum cyber power” able both to defend against — and carry out — hacking attacks “ were the words from Boris Johnson, the UK’s prime minister.
This shift in strategy brings Cyber firmly in alongside Ground, Sea, Air and Space as offensive fronts. Britain’s most senior cyber general, Sir Patrick Saunders, has said the UK possesses the capacity to “degrade, disrupt and destroy” its enemies’ critical infrastructure in a future cyber conflict.
Evidence exists from even earlier, with the creation of new specialist centres to deal with the growing cyber threat. Ireland launched its own National Cyber Security Centre in 2015, with the UK entity going live a year later. The NCSC provides great advice and weekly updates to industry, these are free and shared online, with experts sharing how to protect your digital assets, I recommend you take a look.
Too many business owners said to me over the years “it’s ok, we are not a target”.
The Epilogue
There is no doubt that we have a skills shortage in cyber, not just in the UK but across the world and the bad guys achieving some big wins, however, The Fatima campaign was a crass attack on an already struggling sector.
That said, Cyber requires new ways of thinking, new blood, it requires diversity both in terms of gender and ethnicity and collaborative thinking to complex challenges. I would recommend people think about Cyber as a career choice. It is genuinely fascinating, if you don’t take my word for it, listen to one the best storytellers, Darknet Diaries. It is also very well paid, plus who doesn’t want to be the good guy? The Batman, or Batgirl who reclaims the cyber streets for the innocent civilians?
Cyber Security is an industry we specialise in at YY People, so reach out to one of our experienced international search and recruitment consultants to help your business address that skills gap. Fatima may also apply, or stay right where you are.
