The eleventh Information Assurance event was held in London.
In Autumn 2010 the National Security Strategy identified cyber attacks on national infrastructure among “Tier 1” Security threats. Reflecting the severity of this threat, the UK government plans to spend £650 million over four years on a National Cyber Security Programme (NCSP), to reinforce the nation’s defenses against cyber attack.
Last October the Prime Minister placed cyber security at the top of the national security agenda last. Recognising the importance of Information Assurance in achieving cyber security, the new National Cyber Security Strategy, incorporates the National IA Strategy.
The Government ICT Strategy released earlier this year, is focused specifically on opening up public services and delivering digital by default. The claim made is that the ICT strategy will deliver better public services for less cost through increased openness. But the openness comes with risk, and a safe and trusted environment is essential.
A strong message from all speakers is that the employee is the weakest information security point of the organisation. Education is vital.
New devices are agents of change. Users are becoming empowered in choosing devices and how the devices are used, and this leads to new threats:
Device and data loss
More than half of all users do not lock devices
5-10% of tablets and 15-25% phones lost/stolen each year
Mobile devices predicted to be new malware frontier
Google removed 50 infected Apps from MarketPlace after more than 200k down-loads
User behaviour
Average iPhone has 60 applications downloaded; users more readily download to Smartphones than to laptops.
Greater use of social media
It was stated that there is a serious disconnect between policy and reality and between policy awareness and adherence.
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