Page 99 - CDM-CYBER-DEFENSE-eMAGAZINE-December-2018

Another Cyber Security Month is Over: So What's New?

Leigh-Anne Galloway, Cyber Security Resilience Lead at Positive Technologies

Another October goes by, and with it another National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Celebrating its
th
15 year as an annual initiative to raise awareness about the importance of cybersecurity, its close is a
good time to reflect on what progress has been made, and where we currently stand as an industry.

As always, this noble combined-effort between government and industry - to increase cyber security for
the public and the nation - was overshadowed by the ever looming spectre of high profile cyber attacks.
In October alone, the Wall Street Journal exposed that up to 500,000 Google+ accounts could have been
left exposed thanks to a bug, leading to the ill-dated site promptly being shut down; Facebook confessed
that up to 29 million users were affected by its data breach; and - on the international stage - Hong Kong
airline Cathay Pacific disclosed that a massive 9.4 million passenger records were lost earlier in the year.

Combine these breaches with regular additions to the threatscape and a whole lot of industry jargon (right
now the buzz is around 'quantum-protected networks,' 'destructive mass attacks' and ransomware; next
week it'll likely be something different), and it’s safe to say that, on ground level, the security landscape
looks at best confusing. At worst, the landscape looks bleak.

Yet, if we take a step back, we do see progress. It is clear too that companies are strengthening protection
and striving to comply with regulatory requirements.

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