Eugene Kaspersky, CEO and co-founder of Kaspersky Lab, is urging greater collaboration between the UK government and the private sector to address the very real and potentially devastating threat of cyberwarfare and the consequent risks posed to critical infrastructure.
Kaspersky Lab warns of the risks to critical infrastructure, manufacturing and communications if action is not taken now
Eugene Kaspersky, CEO and co-founder of Kaspersky Lab, is urging greater collaboration between the UK government and the private sector to address the very real and potentially devastating threat of cyberwarfare and the consequent risks posed to critical infrastructure.
In a speech last night (Thursday 25 April) to a select gathering of UK government officials, including Adrian Leppard, Commissioner of the City of London Police; Stephen Harrison, Chief Executive of the National Fraud Authority; and other peers of the realm, Eugene Kaspersky outlined the nature of today’s ever advancing cyberthreats and what needs to be done in response to them. The event, held in the iconic Churchill War Rooms, was also attended by a number of CSOs from British enterprise, including HSBC, Unilever, Vodafone and Barclays. Key British businesses – together with the government – Kaspersky believes are pivotal in the fight against serious cyberdangers.
In his speech, Eugene highlighted the most pressing issues facing the cyberworld – and by extension, the physical world today;
“Today, sophisticated malicious programs – cyberweapons – have the power to disable companies, cripple governments and bring whole nations to their knees by attacking critical infrastructure in sectors such as communications, finance, transportation and utilities. The consequences for human populations could, as a result, be literally catastrophic.”
Kaspersky Lab currently analyses around 200,000[i] unique malware samples every day, compared to just approximately 25 per day in 1994, 700 in 2006 and 7000 in 2011. Some of the most significant recent sophisticated cybertoolsinclude Red October, Flame, MiniFlame, Gauss, Stuxnet, Duqu, Shamoon and Wiper.
Kaspersky Lab believes that a new, proactive approach needs to be actioned to tackle serious cyberthreats, which must start with government and industry cooperation and incorporate universal standardisation and policies;
“Greater investment in education from both government and industry is needed to ensure a continuous flow of talent rising up through the ranks.
“The Cyber Security Information Sharing Partnership (CISP) and its Fusion Cell[ii] are needed for the UK and of course the EU is moving ahead with itsEuropean Network and Information Security Agency(ENISA) and plans for establishing a network of Member States’ NIS bodies andCERTs, but that mustn’t stop individual nations taking the lead with their own measures to raise their cyber-resilience. But regulation needs to beata global level. The CISP and ENISA need to cooperate together, data and expertise sharing can only be advantageous in the on-going fight against cyberthreats of increasing sophistication.
“But why should state intelligence and defence bother cooperating with the private sector? In the words of Francis Maude, Minister of the Cabinet Office, ‘We need to team up to fight common enemies butthekey to cooperating, in a spirit of openness and sharing, are guarantees to maintain the confidentiality of data shared.
“The private sector – particularly IT and security related industries, and also certain key critical industries for which IT security has long been at the top of the agenda – has a wealth of front line cyber-battle experience which state bodies will greatly benefit from having access to. This benefit should then dovetail back to the advantage of the private sector, through the added muscle of state bodies and the enhanced, overall visibility of cyberthreats provided by the private-public partnership.”
Eugene’s speech came hot on the heels of a recent announcement from INTERPOL and Kaspersky Lab that they are entering into a partnership of technical cooperation. Kaspersky Lab will be sending its top experts to INTERPOL’s Global Complex for Innovation in Singapore once it opens, and will also start sharing cyber analytics with the global crime fighting organisation on an on-going basis.
About Kaspersky Lab
Kaspersky Lab is the world’s largest privately held vendor of endpoint protection solutions. The company is ranked among the world’s top four vendors of security solutions for endpoint users*. Throughout its more than 15-year history Kaspersky Lab has remained an innovator in IT security and provides effective digital security solutions for large enterprises, SMBs and consumers. Kaspersky Lab, with its holding company registered in the United Kingdom, currently operates in almost 200 countries and territories across the globe, providing protection for over 300 million users worldwide. Learn more at www.kaspersky.com.
* The company was rated fourth in the IDC rating Worldwide Endpoint Security Revenue by Vendor, 2011. The rating was published in the IDC report "Worldwide Endpoint Security 2012–2016 Forecast and 2011 Vendor Shares (IDC #235930, July 2012). The report ranked software vendors according to earnings from sales of endpoint security solutions in 2011.
[i] Kaspersky Security Network (KSN) is a global exchange of information about malicious activity involving millions of users of Kaspersky Lab products from most countries of the world.
[ii] The Cyber Security Information Sharing Partnership (CISP) has been set up to share information and intelligence on cyber security threats in order to make UK businesses more secure in cyberspace. It will be complemented by a Fusion Cell - a cyberattack monitoring operations room at an undisclosed location in London, supported on the government side by the Security Service, GCHQ and the National Crime Agency, and by industry analysts from a variety of sectors. They will work together to produce an enhanced picture of cyberthreats facing the UK for the benefit of all partners.
