CW500 Interview: Paddy Francis, CTO, Airbus CyberSecurity
Digital transformation is a topic most firms are currently engaged in, and with plans for introducing or increasing the use of digital in an organisation, a discussion surrounding cyber security is not far behind. When it comes to digital transformation, IT leaders must be aware of the security challenges and opportunities that may present themselves when adopting new technologies, as well as how to secure emerging technologies when bringing them into an organisation.
In this CW500 video, Paddy Francis, CTO, Airbus CyberSecurity shares his advice and experiences of keeping tabs on security when trying to introduce emerging digital technologies into large organisations.
According to Computer Weekly’s editor-in-chief, Bryan Glick, firms increasingly want to implement technologies such as cloud and internet of things, but doing so can introduce the potential for threats.
Francis answers questions posed by Glick such as:
What can firms do to prevent these potential vulnerabilities?
When it comes to digital transformation and emerging technologies, what are the biggest challenges that organisations face when it comes to security?
How can businesses tackle those challenges successfully?
What piece of advice, from a security perspective, should be taken into consideration at that early stage of digital adoption?
Some of this session’s key takeaways for those looking to securely implement digital technologies include:
New technologies come with complexity – people aren’t necessarily used to dealing with new tech like they are traditional systems. Then these new systems also have to be configured in a secure manner. Money is often not taken into account during this process. Very often these issues are treated as an IT problem rather than a business-wide problem.
You can't secure something you don't understand. Either get support in configuration or get people trained. Once you've configured the system, make sure you test it and undergo penetration testing.
Make sure only the correct people have access to these newly configured systems.
Where third parties are involved, make sure you've got the skilled people in place and available to help.
As part of the same CW500 event, Computer Weekly also spoke to Jonathan Moreira, CTO of PrimaryBid.com