Cybersecurity Training and Policies are of Equal Value to Products and Features
Encryption is touted as the next evolution in securing data. If the intent is to encrypt text, email content or data objects, the concept is nothing new - mankind has been securing messages in this manner for millennia, the Egyptians used codex’s and the Romans used one time keys and shared secrets. It is a secure method provided that you ensure integrity of the keys.
If the intent is the encryption of a data channel or communications path, then you may be introducing risk to your system. If the data is not inspected at either end of the secure channel, then encryption can be creating a secure path for malware into your system. Encryption can also prevent security appliances from detecting issues. A deep packet inspection firewall (DPI) for example is rendered useless if deployed to look for anomalous activity on an encrypted path as the firewall will not see packet contents.
Your staff need to be Cybersecurity aware, in fact untrained staff may be your biggest risk. Even in a completely air-gapped system, human interaction can lead to a compromise. Compromise could come from the use of removable media, or could be intentionally executed by a disgruntled employee. If a system was compromised, would your staff be capable of detecting it and, if they were, are they suitably trained on how to deal with the issue.
This presentation will give real world examples of how systems have been compromised, how to mitigate this through personnel training and the creation of policies to maintain Cyber awareness within your organization.
