A Call for Higher Education: Where Is Cloud Data Security Headed?

Anyone know when cybersecurity was born or when the first cyber attack was? I didn’t, and needed to look it up. What I found was pretty interesting and I thought you might be interested too!

The birth of cybersecurity

According to many sources, cybersecurity was born in the 1970s with The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) and a program called Creeper, created by researcher Bob Thomas. In turn, Ray Tomlinson developed a program called Reaper to chase and delete Creeper. Reaper is credited as being an example of the first antivirus program.

The first cyber attack

According to some sources, the first cyber attack happened in 1988 at the hands of Robert Tappan Morris. Robert was a 20-something graduate student at Cornell who wanted to know how big the internet was (how many devices were connected to it). He wrote a program that traveled from computer to computer and asked each machine to send a signal back to a control server, which kept count.

So what’s my point? What does this all mean?

My point is, if we were to accept the field of cybersecurity as having started in the 1970s and the first cyber attack to have happened in 1988, you could say that these two concepts are relatively new. One might even say that cybersecurity is in its “infancy” given that it’s only been around for the last portion of a century, which is not all that long in the history of humans and their ancestors who have existed for over 6 million years!

We are just at the tip of the iceberg folks.

Given how new and, let’s admit it, how fast-paced cybersecurity is, education becomes paramount. Every year we learn new ways to protect from attacks, and attackers learn new ways to get around those defenses.

Today’s cybersecurity is radically different than it was in the late 1980s, especially with the arrival of the cloud. As cloud computing grows, so does the amount of data that proliferates in that cloud. That global data creation was forecast to reach 64.2 zettabytes back in 2020, and projected to grow to more than 180 zettabytes by 2025. Just mind-blowing, right?

In this modern world, cyber attacks have become more sophisticated, targeted, widespread, and sometimes even undetected. And with the amount of data exploding in the cloud, that data is easily exploitable and readily available in massive data centers Morris could have only dreamt about! Protecting that data in the cloud needs to be a top priority for cybersecurity professionals by continually learning about new technologies, like AI and quantum computing, alongside the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) used by attackers to get that data.

As data proliferates, it’s critical to ensure awareness of the risks you might be exposed to, such as data security policy violations or shadow data lurking in your S3 buckets.

We’re excited about cybersecurity education and the upcoming (ISC)2 Security Congress conference, and wanted to share some insights to what you can expect.

So the question is, what type of cybersecurity education is right for you?

Check out these sessions we’ve identified that we feel could help you understand the current state of cloud data security. I mean, I don’t see why not…

Cloud Data Risk is Lurking in the Shadows

Monday, October 11, 2022 |  4:00 PM –5:00 PM

Speaker: Andy Smith, CMO at Laminar

Shadow data is the new shadow IT and it’s leaving undue risk and breaches in its wake. CISO anxiety comes from the fear of the unknown and data security teams have lost visibility to where their sensitive data is in the cloud. Find out more here.

All About That Data: How Data Security and Management Will Rule The World

Monday, October 10 |  4:00 PM – 5:00 PM

Speaker: Andrew Neal, MSc, CCFP, C|CISO,CISM,CRISC, VP Research at Gartner

This presentation will examine the forces shaping the data challenges of today and tomorrow, and how IT security professionals can help guide the outcome. From data governance to data security, we will identify and discuss the key aspects of a comprehensive data strategy. Find out more.

How to Proof of Concept (PoC) Cybersecurity Tools

Monday, October 10 | 10:00 AM – 10:55 AM

Speaker: Alex Haynes, CISSP, CISO at IBS Software

This session will restore your confidence when faced with testing and acquiring cybersecurity tools by covering a step-by-step framework focused around the requirements for your business. We will cover some common cybersecurity toolsets and how to test and score them, and even how to test new technologies that defy categorization. Examples, checklists, and case studies will be shared. Learn more now.

Let’s all hop on the train and do some learning together! I hope to see you in Vegas next month! Viva la Vegas!

Meet Us Here

(ISC)2 Security Congress

October 10-11, 2022

Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, NV

Booth #201

Save Your Spot Now!

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