You can not protect what you don't understand: A video interview with Chris Dimitriadis

Cybersecurity might not be a topic you talk, or even think about, daily. When it’s doing its job, you never notice that it’s even there, something that ISACA’s 170,000 members and countless other IT professionals take pride in.

However, when cybersecurity measures fail, the consequences can be dire.

Tech.eu sat down with Chris Dimitriadis, Chief Global Strategy Officer at ISACA, the leading global professional association helping individuals and organisations in their pursuit of digital trust, to discuss the importance of cybersecurity, particularly as the power of AI grows and the widespread availability of quantum computing is not too far away.

Dimitriadis highlights the negative chain of events that can be triggered by a cybersecurity breach, ultimately affecting a company’s bottom line.

He says:

“It breaks trust with the customer, with an individual, and this is hugely important, especially for the success of enterprises nowadays.”

When it comes to retaining customer trust, and thereby associated revenues, through strict security policies, ISACA’s newly released Privacy in Practice report reveals:

• Two in every five (41 per cent) privacy professionals in Europe state their budgets are underfunded.
• Half (53 per cent) of organisations report their technical privacy teams are understaffed.
• Just 10 per cent of organisations are completely confident in their ability to ensure data privacy and achieve compliance with new privacy laws and regulations.

Chris offers his rationale behind the numbers:

“Cybersecurity and privacy, in practice, don’t generate revenue for enterprise, and most of the time they’re being considered as a compliance risk.”

Speaking on the topic of AI, quantum computers, and cybersecurity, Dimitriadis says the combination is a worry but goes on to highlight the security measures that multiple fronts are developing and establishing ahead of the time when quantum computers become mainstream.

He adds:

“AI and quantum will change our world and of course, we don’t only need to consider the threats, they’re going to provide a huge amount of value to our society, to our economy.

“... I see this as a positive and we can never stop technology trends. At the same time we need to take into account new security approaches in order to make sure that this adoption of emerging technologies will be done in a trusted and safe for the individual manner.”