Cyber security becomes, year after year, the key to many economic, political and geopolitical challenges. With an ever-increasing connectivity, a constant increase of financial and commercial transactions and an almost unlimited exchange of data, this topic affects everyone.
If hacking is often fantasized in fictions, movies and video games, it nevertheless remains a real danger.
Not a month goes by without the media talking about cyberattacks against governments, multinationals or private consumers. Data is the new oil and it is not surprising to see the emergence of malicious actors interested in it.
Cyber security is much more than an IT issue
80% of cyber-attacks are caused by phishing and they are often due a human error. A slightly modified official email address, an almost perfectly copied bank logo, a text message claiming financial gains… the devil is in the details when it comes to cyber-attacks.
If it is true that we need state-of-the-art experts to fight against these threats, the crux of the matter remains awareness and communication to a maximum of people.
The best defense against cybercrime: awareness
To dig deeper into the subject, WESTPOLE Belgium organized a webinar on Thursday 24 June 2021 with Phédra Clouner, Deputy Director of the Center for Cybersecurity Belgium (the Belgian national cybersecurity agency).
Phédra gave a fascinating presentation covering the different facets of the topic.
First, it was important to specify who are the active players in the cyberattacks. The profiles are varied but can be grouped into the following categories: activists, criminals, states and script kiddies (usually teenagers aiming to break into a computer but who don’t have the skills of a real hacking expert).
We then talked about the types of attacks, the top 5 being malware, web-based attacks, phishing, web applications attacks and spams. To fight these cyberattacks, it is important to make users as aware as possible, given that breaches are, most of the time, possible due to human error (Problem In Chair Not In Computer).
Finally, Phédra told us about the actors at the Belgian and European level and the various regulations related to this subject. With the Centre for Cyber security Belgium, Belgian authorities aim to become the least cyberthreat vulnerable country in Europe by 2025. At the European level, there are also numerous initiatives and institutions such as ENISA (The EU Cybersecurity Agency) or the EU Cybersecurity Act (Regulation EU 2019/881).
After Phédra’s presentation, we concluded the webinar with an exciting Q&A session.
François Delmoitiez- Account Manager IO