Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1305625
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 1 NOVEMBER 2020 12 COMMERCIAL THE ever-changing technology and the wide use of digital media are making attackers smarter! Risk and severity of cyber-attacks grew considerably as 2020 brought about a fresh wave of cyber se- curity threats that people and businesses need to be aware of! Last year Cyber Security Malta, the national cyber security awareness and education campaign led by MITA, held the first national cyber security summit. This year, the same event went online in view of the COVID-19 restrictions. Regardless of the platform, the partic- ipants had the opportunity to follow an interesting line-up of renowned nation- al and international speakers, all experts in different areas of cyber security. Staying ahead of the game, Cyber Se- curity Malta and MITA organised a spe- cialised webinar focusing on new and emerging cyber threats and hence the title of the webinar 'Emerging Threats . . . unplugged'. Ian Busuttil Naudi, from Gadgets, hosted the event, and started off by setting the scene and listing pos- sible reasons why participants might have joined the webinar. Clayton Bartolo, Parliamentary Secre- tary for Financial Services and Digital Economy, delivered a message high- lighting Government's responsibility to offer the necessary means to protect our digital assets, our government and our country. He mentioned the newfound chal- lenges that we all need to overcome to guarantee the highest level of security possible in terms of the confidentiali- ty, integrity and accessibility offered by systems and infrastructures – the three pillars on which digital information needs to be built on to ensure digital security. Bartolo referred to the recent inau- guration of the Security Operations Centre at MITA which is serving as a centre of excellence in the field of cyber security, an investment done in terms of facilities, tooling as well as human capacity. He thanked MITA and the National Cyber Security Committee who are working on the articulation of the new cyber security strategy with a vision that looks beyond 2023. MITA's Chief Technology Officer, Jonathan Cassar, said that MITA is hon- oured for being entrusted by the par- liamentary secretary to carry out both government and national mandates in cyber security. Referring to its national obligation, Jonathan stressed the Agen- cy's responsibility to be a role model for others and to deliver cyber security hygiene messages particularly to those who are oblivion to security and hence exposed to high risk. Jonathan also re- ferred to the brilliant collaboration that Cyber Security Malta managed to se- cure throughout its inception which en- abled Malta to participate for the third consecutive year in the European Cyber Security Month organised by the EU Agency for Cybersecurity, ENISA. He highlighted the threats that domi- nated the world this year including the web-based malware, exploit attempts on consumer-grade routers and IoT de- vices, and ransomware. Jonathan con- cluded by referring to recent figures indicating that year 2020 is on the verge to shatter the record for the total num- ber of disclosed vulnerabilities and the lowest ratio ever recorded for vulnera- bilities with active exploits in the wild. Candid Wüest, Vice President at Ac- ronis, was the first international speak- er who dominated the screens and pre- sented the top cyber threats that the world needs to know for 2021 to arm ourselves accordingly. Whether an Ar- senal FC supporter or not, Christelle Heikkila, the IT Director from Arsenal Football Club, was next and explained how the cyber protection and football environment come together. Heading on with the agenda and right into the first panel titled 'Think Before You Act' moderated by Martin Camill- eri, Cyber Threat Intelligence Manager at MITA. The panel was composed of Candid Wüest, Christelle Heikkila, Jon- athan Cassar in his vest as MITA Chief Technology Officer and also as a member of the National Cyber Security Steering Committee, and a representative from the National Cyber Security Centre UK. The questions were very intriguing and the common message that came through was that cyber threats are like bread and butter, they go along with technology and it's a matter how well we are prepared to countermeasure such threats and attacks. Concluding the panel and the first part of the webinar, dedicated to the executives, were a number of interesting questions from the participants. We then moved on to shots of the newly launched state-of-the-art Securi- ty Operations Centre at MITA, and Ian introduced participants to the second part of the webinar which was particu- larly enticing for the technical people. In fact, the webinar resumed with a presentation and demonstration by one of the most known women in the cyber security field, Paula Januszkiewicz who is Cloud and Datacentre Management Katya Bonello Unplugging cyber threats