Interview: Neil Rerup

The New Terrorism: Cyber Wars

Neil Rerup, CyberSecurity Expert and Author

The New Terrorism: Cyber Wars

IP: Why did you write CyberPeril?

Neil Rerup: What I’ve found in a dozen years in CyberSecurity is most books on the subject are written at a very technical level but unfortunately, IT Security jargon is lost on the real decision makers of an Organization. I wrote CyberPeril in a format that Business Leaders can use to understand CyberSecurity risks.

IP: What are the top threats facing us?

Neil Rerup: In today’s IT landscape, it’s no longer the simple hacker attacking for personal gratification. Now, we have to worry about serious enemies including hacktivists, organized crime, and nation states with strategic motives light years beyond personal gratification. Now Cyber Security experts must address sophisticated financial crime, national security, and political agendas.

IP: Who needs to worry about this?

Neil Rerup: Organization leaders, whether of governments, large enterprises, or SMBs, must focus on cybersecurity. Until the leaders understand and appreciate these high-potential risks, they fail to invest appropriately in IT security infrastructure, people, and processes to protect their organizations. These threats are potentially devastating to companies and even economies so really it directly or indirectly affects all of us.

IP: Who is winning this war?

Neil Rerup: Unlike a convention war, the cyber security war is unending. So long as new technologies are developed and implemented, there are new attack vectors that evil doers can take advantage of working to breach IT security systems and processes. Fortunately, new technologies foster new cybersecurity technologies to protect against those new attack vectors.

IP: What's coming next?

Neil Rerup: The new cybersecurity technologies are actually different slants on existing IT security technologies but that leverage the new Technologies themselves. So, while the past took advantage of tools like firewalls and usernames/passwords, cyber security now uses a new generation of firewalls and patterns traced on images (pictures).

IP: What steps are in process to assure business and public cybersecurity?

Neil Rerup: CyberSecurity has become such a high profile issue that governments are getting involved at the highest levels, requiring a certain level IT Security standards be implemented for critical infrastructure and other at-risk IT systems. Vendors and their developers are doing their part with more varies cyber security products and services. The great news is that the good guys are taking cybersecurity more seriously than ever before and IT security is typically woven into every part of companies and organizations.

About Neil Rerup: Neil is a cybersecurity entrepreneur and IT security futurist. He founded Enterprise CyberSecurity Architects (ECSA) where he leads a strategy team that counsels and supports important companies and organizations in Canada and the United States. Neil is a frequent speaker on cyber threats. More information: www.neilrerup.com www.enterprisecybersecurity.com

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