CONNECTING THE DEFENCE COMMUNITY WITH INSIGHT, INTELLIGENCE & OPPORTUNITIES

Officially Supported By: Defence Contracts International Supply2Defence

Official Media Partners for:

European Cyber Security Month is currently underway with a number of events across the continent designed to promote cyber security and advocate change in the perception of cyber threats by promoting good practice.

The event began in 2012 and has been held every October, increasing in popularity every year, with 2016 seeing 433 events across 31 countries.

As part of the event, Atkins commissioned new research on cyber security, which has been revealed in the Cyber Resilient Infrastructure Report – ‘Defence and security in the information age’.

The report covers a range of articles outlining how the UK might become a more cyber resilient nation, looking at the evolving military risks to CNI in the modern world and includes a contribution from General Sir Richard Barrons, former Commander Joint Forces Command.

Respondents to the report research included senior figures across a wide range of CNI, government and defence organisations. These included Airbus Defence & Space, Anglian Water, Department for Culture, Media & Sport, MBDA Missile Systems, Ministry of Defence Joint Forces Command, Qinetiq, Raytheon UK and the UK Space Agency.

The main concern raised by the research (recorded from some 58% of respondents) was low levels of confidence in supply chain CNI, with half of these expressing no confidence at all. This is a major concern going forward particularly in the defence sector. The aim to bring 25% of purchasing from SMEs brings challenges of its own, and CNI security is a major issue. People reported confidence in their own organisation’s security, but it is considered to be much more difficult to protect information assets and intellectual property once it entered a wider supply chain.

Further to these concerns about supply chain, some 50% of respondents considered people/employees to be their top concern. This response covered a range of issues including insider threat, user browsing, board-level awareness, and staff understanding of the part they play in helping to protect their organisation.

A quarter of those responded expressed concerns over network compromisation and insufficiently protected legacy systems, such as issues around the Internet of Things and Cloud-based services. Finally the growth of organised and state-sponsored cyber-crime was seen as an issue by some 8%.

All these issue reflect the same concerns found in research taken last year, but a greater understanding of the issues and scale of threats has been found.

Looking ahead, respondents cited their top three CNI cyber security concerns for the future as the rapid advance of technology, especially convergence, this was followed by the growth of organised and state-sponsored cyber-crime and lastly a shortage of skills required for the UK’s cyber defence.

Andy Wall, Atkins’ head of cyber security explained: “As well as serving as a confidence barometer, the research results also help paint a picture of the CNI and defence industry’s major cyber security concerns, both today and in the future. Although some of these results are concerning, there are of course some CNI organisations – particularly the civil nuclear industry – who are leading in this area, and there is much that parallel sectors could learn from their example.

“Alongside the concerns outlined above, transparency was also raised as an enduring industry challenge. A lack of clear definitions of risk terms and reliance upon confusing technical language to define the cyber threat is turning off senior leaders. This in turn is preventing them from fully understanding the risks and potential mitigation measures. Hopefully this new report will help to overcome some of those barriers.”

To download a free copy of the report and research, please visit: explore.atkinsglobal.com/cyber

 

If you would like to join our community and read more articles like this then please click here

Atkins CNI Cyber Cyber Resilient Infrastructure Report cyber security cyber threat Europe European Cyber Security Month skills shortage supply chain

Post written by: Vicky Maggiani

Vicky has worked in media for over 20 years and has a wealth of experience in editing and creating copy for a variety of sectors.


LATEST STAKEHOLDER

Become a Stakeholder today and benefit from an exclusive marketing package which will allow you to:

  • Engage with active defence buyers and key supply chain partners
  • Create your own branded micro-site which within Defence Online which is managed by you
  • Have a dedicated Digital Account Manager to help enhance your Stakeholder page
  • Promote your news, products, press releases, eBooks and Videos as a Defence Online partner which feeds through to our homepage and social media channels
  • Have your company promoted on our partner website Defence Contracts Online (DCO)
  • All news promoted in mynewsdesk, a major hub for all of our news articles which enables news to be picked up from trade magazines, national newspapers and many other publications which offers extra exposure at no additional cost!

Contact us today or call us on 0845 557 1315 to take advantage of this exclusive marketing package


.

RELATED ARTICLES

Defence Cyber Marvel 3 (DCM3) has taken place in Estonia - the first pan-Defence initiative to build a grass roots community across Defence, His Majesty’s Government and international allies and partners.

February 27, 2024

Homeland - Global cyber competition secures and strengthens key relationships

Defence Cyber Marvel 3 (DCM3) has taken place in Estonia – the first pan-Defence initiative to build a grass roots community

A new competition has been launched by DASA to help quantify and reduce cyber risk across defence and enhance digital resilience.

September 7, 2023

Homeland - DASA £880,000 competition seeks to reduce cyber risk

A new competition has been launched by DASA to help quantify and reduce cyber risk across defence and enhance digital