The first ever CyberScotland Summit hosted a wide variety of speakers who covered topics like threat prediction, diversity and organisational collaboration.
Speakers and panellists ranged from the FBI to an Ambassador from Estonia, and included Lindy Cameron, CEO of National Cyber Security Centre, and Clare El Azebbi, Head of the Cyber Resilience Unit of the Scottish Government. Every minute of the summit was committed to discussing the most pressing concerns we all face with local, national and international cyber security.
Organisational cooperation was highlighted by several speakers as key to staying ahead of possible cyber threats. Even the speakers from the FBI humbly admitted that though sharing information was not their usual line of business, institutional cooperation between cyber security teams was essential to thwarting hacks and possible privacy breaches.
Being prepared is the best defence, which was illustrated by an example where a Brazilian cyber security company alerted international colleagues to a hack and helped companies in the UK to avoid it.
Another key topic was increasing diversity within the field, including more variety in gender, cultural background and neurodiversity. Since many cyber professionals need to ‘think like a hacker’ to help build defences against attacks, it is important for the field to have a diversity of viewpoints to provide the creativity needed.
A 28-year IT industry veteran, Don Smith, shared his view of best practices on the An Intelligence-Led Approach to Cyber Security panel. Preparing, anticipating and outlining possible threats is the best way to use strategic intelligence. Don leads a global team of experienced threat analysts who, through the application of established intelligence practices, to deliver cyber defence products.
On the Growing the Cyber Security Skills Pipeline – Challenges and Solutions panel, Freha Arshad shared her thoughts on how employers can address the skills gap by making it easier for those who are neurodiverse to integrate into their place of work. Freha leads Accenture Security’s Health & Public Service Practice as well as being responsible for the cyber team in Scotland.
St. Margaret’s Academy High School student Adi Kachikwu was eager to share some encouraging words for other students interested in pursuing careers in cyber security. He highlighted how networking helped lead him to an interview with the Scottish Business Resilience Centre and eventually an Information Security Technical Modern Apprenticeship.
