The key to a good cyber defense strategy is to improve knowledge of current threats, and risks to businesses, according to law enforcement professionals speaking at London’s Infosecurity Europe 2014 conference in London.
Lee Miles, deputy head of the UK’s National Cyber Crime Unit told delegates, “While security technology will help, a contemporary and dynamic awareness of real-world risks and threats is very important.”
Miles said that businesses were competing with highly organized gangs which shared information in order to maximize the impact of their attacks. Ensuring a high level of awareness is crucial to business cyber defense, according to Computer Weekly.
Miles’s organization tracks and monitors 320 forums for cybercriminals, in order to gain insight into attack technologies, and planned crimes.
Miles said, “These are trusted places in cyberspace where criminals come together, providing one of the best streams of intelligence on criminal business models.”
Businesses need to have a similar awareness of trends in cybercrime, and share this information to stay a step ahead, Miles said.
Veteran security writer and researcher Graham Cluley said that another key part of cyber defense was to understand your own weaknesses - before cybercriminals found them.
Cluley said, “Hack yourself to find out what your technical and human vulnerabilities are before the bad guys do it, so you can close those gaps before you are compromised."
