Once again Inprosec has attended an ISMS Forum event, in this case the third edition of the Galicia Regional Forum. Held on April 7, in the Auditorium of Abanca in Vigo.
During the session, the new map of cyber threats in the war context was analyzed, as well as the latest trends in the ransomware industry, the management and response to incidents in the Cloud or the needs for visibility, control and automation of response in industrial environments.
During the article you will be able to read a short review of the most outstanding speeches of the event.
Keynote Camino Kavanagh (King’s College London)
The first speech that the Inprosec team was able to enjoy was the intervention of Camino Kavanagh from King’s College London and collaborator at the UN. Her speech focused on issues related to cyberwarfare and any digital aspect. Our colleague Roberto Baratta from ABANCA, had the opportunity to exchange words with her, specifically on the conflict and war derived from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its different impacts focusing on the context of cyberwarfare. Both in the impact and direct intervention in it, as well as the indirect impact it causes on both public and private organizations that see increased exposure to attacks and cyber risks arising from the war, even if they do not have an active and direct participation.
After Camino’s presentation, during the coffee break, our CEO, Iago Fortes had the opportunity to exchange a few words with her. Iago and Camino knew each other from several experiences working together both in the UK and Ireland. Also from Inprosec we would like to highlight the role of the UN in the current context and as a result of digitization and digital space, the UN proposes the creation of the “Digital Blue Helmets” in line with the great role developed by the “Blue Helmets” of the UN in the military aspect in the traditional terrestrial and physical space.
Presentation Adrian Couceiro (Caixabank)
Another of the presentations that we would like to highlight is that of Adrian Couceiro, head of the BlueTeam of Caixabank, focused on incident response in the cloud. The presentation was very interesting for the team, as it was focused on the incident response process, approached from a very practical and didactic point of view. On the other hand, Adrian has also highlighted experiences of real cases that are also very enriching and the most interesting type of interventions and from which you can learn the most.
Round Table
Afterwards, a round table discussion took place, moderated by our colleague and friend Carlos Pérez, CISO of ABANCA. Several manufacturers took part in it, with representation from Fede Vadillo from Akamai, Iratxe Macías from Aruba, Juan José Navarro from Radware and Carlos Mayés from SentinelOne. From the exchange of ideas, it seems important and interesting to highlight the focus on the progress of the transition to the cloud by organizations and companies and the big question launched by Carlos: Is the cloud a threat? As a global and general conclusion shared, the cloud has its pros and cons, but it is not a threat in itself, but a new space and entry channel, which increases the exposure of organizations, but has many advantages in various aspects that must be taken advantage of but with an appropriate and proportional risk management.
Presentation Lucas Varela (Ransom Industry)
Next, one of the regular speakers and that we already knew from his time at Caixabank, Lucas Varela, spoke to us during his presentation “Ransom Industry”, a little of the history of Ramsomware and how it has evolved to become a real industry. A very open and delocalized technology that makes it very difficult to trace. One of the highlights was the special chapter dedicated to “Conti” as it is the latest and most recent significant Ramsomware. Once finished, we left with the feeling that it was a very complete and interesting lecture, with a great didactic and informative load, of those from which you always get valuable information and lessons learned.
Vesku Turtia lecture
Afterwards, we had the opportunity to listen and watch the presentation of Vesku Turtia from Armis, with whom we were able to meet during the Coffee Break. It was very interesting to see a presentation, focused on the OT (IoT) and Industrial Cybersecurity world, where we are focused from our industrial division: InprOTech. So we want to invite you to take a first step, if you are interested in industrial cybersecurity, by visiting the InprOTech website.
Presentation Cibersecurity in a Box
In this speech, our colleagues David González, CISO of Coren, and Fernando Suarez, President of CPEIG, talked about the project Cibersecurity in a Box. A very interesting initiative and applicable to the Spanish environment and in particular the Galician, since it is aimed at SMEs with the focus of offering them tools and resources of simple use and without cost to facilitate and bring the management of information security risks to these companies with fewer resources.
Presentation Antonio Fernandes (FINSA)
One of the last speeches of the event was given by our friend Antonio Fernandes, Cyber security Manager at FINSA and one of the organizers of ViCON. In his speech: “What’s new, old man?” he gave us some notions of history about cyber-attacks such as the one we found in the Farewell report, attacks on NATO countries such as Estonia, Stuxnet and also the creation of the CCDCOE.
Presentation Susana Rey (Más Movil)
To close the day we have enjoyed the knowledge of our friend Susana Rey, DPO of Más Móvil, in a presentation on data protection in which within the current context; she specifies that data protection is part of cybersecurity and therefore, everything discussed affects the protection of personal data. It is necessary to have cybersecurity measures and also in function of the risk. “We cannot have data protection measures without going hand in hand with cybersecurity”.
Finally, we enjoyed a cocktail on the top floor of the ABANCA building where we shared conversations with colleagues, partners, customers and even some new friendships from which we hope new opportunities and adventures will arise.
Conclusions
Once again it has been a pleasure to enjoy this year’s edition of the event organized by ISMS for and by Galicia. As always, we like to end our summaries by commenting on our conclusions of all that was absorbed:
- Cyberwarfare is important and has a great impact. In the current circumstances we are experiencing it because of the conflict and war resulting from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However, cyberwarfare has already been with us for many years.
- Focusing mainly on this topic, we have been presented with some solutions, but especially they have told us about the daily experiences of professionals in organizations that have to deal with the different derivatives.
- Among these problems and topics discussed we highlight:
- Incident response, including Ramsomware.
- Attacks on Critical Infrastructure and Industry.
- New threats and digitization and increased migration to the cloud.
- The problems faced by SMEs in dealing with complex issues.
- Personal data protection.