Cyber Defense refers to the set of solutions, services and trainings that organizations implement to enable a cyber security framework and to be prepared against any potential cyber attack. Enterprises and organizations are becoming increasingly aware of cyber risks and procuring cyber security consulting services.
Since last year, almost 35% of enterprises in countries such as Australia, UK, Dubai, Sri-Lanka, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Nigeria, Kenya & South Africa have raised their budgets for cyber security audit and consulting, which has contributed to the growth in demand for cyber security consulting professionals & cyber security institutes to help them implement the cyber security audit framework.
Understanding the reasons behind cyber attacks, allows an enterprise to easily plan cyber security audit for each particular case and design a cyber security plan in a more effective manner. According to the experts from a cyber security institute, the fear of being the target of a focused attack is forcing government and private organizations to spend more money on cyber security consulting, cyber security audit and conventional security tools.
Nonetheless, the implementation of a great cyber security audit goes far beyond investing in traditional security solutions, such as firewalls or antivirus. It is necessary to think about long term and sophisticated cyber defense frameworks rather than just conducting a basic cyber security audit, so you can protect a company’s IT infrastructure against the most advanced threats.
As the governments and big companies worldwide are getting more and more affected by these threats, the procedures for cyber security audit have changed radically. According to a well-known professor of a cyber security school, since the last five years cyber security has consolidated as a must in multiple contexts.
Big companies are not only focusing on hiring external cyber security consulting services, they are also aiming to create their own cyber security consultants team. To develop the necessary skills to master cyber security, companies are sending their staff to cyber security schools.
With the help of these cyber security schools, businesses can easily learn to conduct cyber security audit and implement security without the help of a costly external cyber security consulting services.
Governments of various countries, especially in USA, Russia, China, UK, Germany, and India, have been developing and employing offensive cyber tactics, including cyber espionage and critical infrastructure attacks. Defense in the cyber space has become a critical matter for governments, which have to depend on a proactive approach and advanced security strategies.
Cyber security institute specialist considers that, if any government wants to control cyber space, it has to deal with a lot of political constraints. Implementation of cyber defense for the securing of cyber space is a really complex task. Due to the nature of the Internet, trying to establish ownership on this infrastructure is complicated.
As the cases of private sector espionage are increasing, many governments agencies are coming forward and partnering with the private sector to ensure security from cyber attacks by foreign state and non-state actors. By partnering with the cyber security institutes or cyber security consulting companies, government agencies can maintain a stronger foothold over cyberspace. Presently there are many cyber security institutes working on government-sponsored projects, these organizations have resources available to monitor new threats. Thus, these cyber security institutes can in turn share the threat information with cyber security consulting companies and other private sector enterprises.
International Institute of Cyber Security is working with different Governments to implement the following programs as part of their cyber security strategies and to be more prepared in the war against cyber crime:
Cyber Security School Program
The main goal of a general cyber security school program is to increase cyber security awareness among Internet users.
Government agencies can partner with cyber security schools and ensure that people learn secure use of Internet, smart devices and cyber space. Similar programs have been implemented before by cyber security institutes and cyber security schools in Europe, generating better results than expected, enabling users to understand basic concepts related to cyber threats and the way cyber crime works.
According to cyber security institute, awareness could be also powered by TV advertisement campaigns, as it is still the main mass media resource.
Cyber Security Expert Development Program
According to cyber security institute experts, the biggest problem in the field of cyber security is the extreme shortage of highly qualified cyber security consulting experts. The existing cyber security school system must produce more highly qualified students. These cyber security consulting experts can keep the government and the private sector ahead in terms of technology.
Besides, government needs to develop a strategy to expand and support cyber security school programs. The aim of a cyber security school education program is to impulse average IT engineers to become qualified cyber security consulting professionals.
Cyber security schools are focusing on trainings in following areas:
- General IT user
- Information technology infrastructure
- Operations
- Maintenance
- Information assurance
- Digital forensics
- Malware analysis
- Cloud security
- Mobile security
- Exploit development
- Cyber defense
- Cyber law
- Counterintelligence
- Advance cyber security school trainings
As per cyber security institute experts, with the help of cyber security schools, the private sector will have the most benefit as it will reduce their spending on external cyber security audits and solutions.
Program for Cyber Security School Infrastructure
The aim of a cyber security school infrastructure program is to focus on creating new cyber security schools and improving the already existing ones. This program includes development of synergies between cyber security schools and cyber security institutes to develop R&D programs in this field. This program supports the existing cyber security school education and creates new programs for cyber security research and development.
Jointly, these programs will help the government, private sector, existing cyber security consulting companies and cyber security institutes. All these cyber security schools can also act as cyber security audit or certification centers and as a reference authority for existing universities and schools.
Incident Response Cyber Security Program
Government agencies can partner with cyber security institutes and cyber security consulting companies in the incident response field. And in case a big company, such as a multinational bank, suffers a cyber attack, the government needs to work with cyber security institutes to develop possible forensics analysis strategies.
This is a complex work, and most of small businesses have no cyber security teams or money, so they can’t rely on cyber security consulting companies or cyber security institutes to perform these advanced security tasks. The only solution is to build an in-house cyber security consulting team with the help of a good cyber security school.
Cyber Security Human Resource Program
The aim of a cyber security human resource program is to to manage cyber security jobs, people recruitment and career path strategies. With the help of this program, government agencies can manage federal workforce, the government workforce, intelligence agencies workforce, cyber security institute workforce and the private sector workforce in the cyber security domain. Cyber security institute experts mention that this program can be used for managing and evaluating cyber security consulting workforce. This would help in consulting workforce development and job placements of cyber security schools.
Bug Bounty and Award Program
It is not enough for the information technology professionals to understand the importance of cyber security; leaders at all levels of government and private sector need to understand the importance of cyber security too. Cyber security schools will not just help creating a cyber security consulting workforce but will also help business leaders to make business and investment decisions based on risk management.
Bug bounty and award programs aim to compensate the work of independent cyber security consultants for finding and reporting vulnerabilities, thus preventing the sale of these vulnerabilities in the black market. According to cyber security institute experts, it’s important to craft suitable alliances between governments, cyber security audit companies and cyber security institutes as it could bring great bug bounty programs and benefits for freelance cyber security consultants.
Also governments need to develop a strategy to expand their alliances with various private sector companies, existing cyber security consulting companies, cyber security schools and cyber security institute to proactively defend against cyber attack, acts of espionage and establishing a stronger foothold in the cyber space.
The International Institute of Cyber Security (IICS) is a cyber security organization and is working along with governments and private sector of various countries. With cyber security schools and cyber security institutes in Mexico, USA and India, IICS delivers the best cyber security audit, education & consulting services. We have a partner program that recognizes the effort and investment of strategic allies, offering cyber security audits services and solutions to achieve sustainable and mutually beneficial business. Our partners / partners program is available in Australia, UK, Dubai, Qatar, Sri-Lanka, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Nigeria, Kenya & South Africa.