As our world becomes more digital, security – cybersecurity, network security, information security, to name a few – are becoming increasingly crucial, especially since inevitably we tend to be several steps behind the cybercriminals. Garfield Gordon, a security expert at Cisco, updates us on some of the trends that are being observed, along with tips and recommendations that organisations can implement to improve their network/IT security.
This episode is also available in Apple iTunes and on Stitcher!
If you have been paying attention to global news, and on an all too regular basis, there are reports of major computer network breaches occurring, along with the theft of personal data from hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of user accounts. Frequently, the breaches took placw several weeks or months prior, leaving the affected organisations scrambling to investigate what happened, and to manage the fallout.
Although such scenarios in the Caribbean region are not as widely reported, they are happening. Over the past two to three years in particular, many public and private sector organisations, along with individuals, have experienced ransomware attacks, and we have all had to become increasingly vigilant about spam and malicious email. As a result, regional policymakers seem to be more aware and concerned about the state of cybersecurity in their respective countries, and there has been some effort to strengthen the needed frameworks and to secure expert assistance.
We, at ICT Pulse, thus thought it appropriate to continue our discussion on cybercrime and cybersecurity in the region.
For our regular readers, and every year since 2012, we have had an Expert Insight series on cybersecurity in the Caribbean, in which we pose a series of questions to network/IT security professionals based in the region. Today, and on this podcast episode, we will be interviewing one of those experts.
Garfield Gordon, is a Senior Systems Engineer at Cisco, and works out of the firm’s Miami/Fort Lauderdale office, which covers the Caribbean region. Garfield, has over 25 years’ experience in the IT/ICT space. His areas of expertise include: systems integration, networking, internet, security, wireless, mobile, application development and business enablement.
Garfield Gordon
Our conversation with Garfield touched on a broad range of issues, including:
- The most prevalent types of incidents in the Caribbean region
- How the threat landscape has changed over the years
- Trends, or particular areas of concern, to which we in the Caribbean should be paying attention
- Practices or behaviour that Caribbean organisations engage in, that in the past would have been okay, but now open them to threats
- Garfield’s background, and how you become involved in network security
- Advice Garfield would give someone who might want to get into network security
- New and emerging threats of which we should be more aware
- Three key things organisations should be doing to improve their network/IT security.
We would love to hear from you!
Do leave us a comment either here beneath this article, or on our Facebook or LinkedIn pages, or via Twitter, @ICTPulse
Select links
Below are links to some of the organisations and resources that either were mentioned during the episode, or otherwise, might be useful:
- Garfield Gordon
- Cisco
- Report on Equifax hack
- Penetration testing – Penetration Testing for IT Infrastructure
- Purdue model – What was that Purdue Model stuff, anyway?
- Internet of Things (IoT)
- Managed services
- Malware (malicious software)
- Ransomware
- Structured Query Language (SQL) injection
- Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS)
- University of Technology
Image credits: Fotocitizen (Pixabay); G Gordon
Music credit: Ray Holman
