Decouple cyber security from IT issues — Expert
AN International Expert in Information Security, Professor Godfried Williams, has called on businesses to create an independent cyber unit in their establishments to efficiently guard against vulnerabilities to cyber-attacks.
That, he said, would help businesses to decouple cyber security from information technology (IT) issues and provide the needed attention to cyber security and related activities.
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He explained that globally, cyber threats had evolved at a rapid pace, with a rising number of data breaches continuing each year and for that reason, there was a need to create a department to handle cyber issues separately.
“From our observations, there is an overemphasis on the IT function in an organisation, especially in Ghana, which only at this point needed to be changed due to the rapidily evolving nature of cyber threats.
“And so, the role of an IT department in protecting the organisation's infrastructure has become absolute,” Prof Williams, who is also the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Intellas, an IBM Business Partner, said in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday.
The workshop
Prof. Williams spoke to the Daily Graphic ahead of the second edition of the Cyber-security Boardroom Series (CBS) scheduled for tomorrow.
It will bring together senior executives and CEOs from the financial, insurance and legal sectors of the economy.
The CBS will expose participants to cyber risks and threats faced by organisations daily.
On the theme “The Cyberspace. How prepared is your organisation?” the workshop seeks to create a platform for the participants to build their competencies on cyber-related issues.
It is an initiative of Intellas, an IBM Business Partner and the go-to company that specialises in the application of artificial intelligence to cyber security, digital forensics and big data analytics.
Build on success
The CEO observed that the second series was to build on the successes of the first edition of the workshop.
“We have made significant inroads with the subject matter in terms of the interest that senior executives have shown since we held the first edition in February.
“We had the opportunity of engaging the executives from industries such as insurance, financial and those in the legal fraternity,” he said.
He said it provided the momentum to further engage and address some of the pending issues while it offered the necessary direction for business executives and organisations with respected emerging cyber security issues.
Strategic assets
According to him, cyber was no more an IT function because the narrative had changed and so, it should be part of the strategic assets of all businesses.
With cyber security protection of internet-connected systems such as hardware, software and data from cyber threats, he said taking deliberate steps to place cyber security under the oversight of the executive management was crucial.
“To be able to respond to cyber-attacks properly, executive management at the top level needed to understand and give it the needed attention.
Cyber is an asset and part of the intellectual property portfolio that requires not just security but also optimising the internet protocol (IP) for a competitive advantage purposes,” he said.
Industrial revolution
The CEO noted that cyber security was important but not necessarily to protect network communication. Rather, it was to guard against vulnerabilities to cyber-attacks.
“Cyber security is not to protect data from a confidential source or ensure the integrity of data nor to make data available to your clients. We need to treat cyber security as assets to an organisation in order to gain competitive advantage.
“With the advent of the fourth and fifth industrial revolution where we no longer have systems in isolation, the idea of the IT department is gone and, therefore, cyber security has become central to any business or organisation,” he added.