An Uncomfortable Change: Shifting Perceptions to Establish Pragmatic Cyber Security

Abstract

The challenges that a lack of conventionally conceptualized borders in Cyberspace create are increasing in scale and form. This position paper evaluates through the myriad of reasons for this situation, from the absence of cyber security standards, an industry which values training over education for short term gains, resulting in a long term de-skilled workforce, to a solutions space that has an excessive focus on technological control. This demands a necessary change in approach to cyber security to meet the increasingly intelligent and diverse threats. As a specialist field, cyber security requires a collective proactive approach incorporating technology, government support, policy and education. Indeed, it is possible that a reversal of currently accepted perceptions, where organizations manage their security in isolation, will result in a paradigm shift. This will demand acceptance of a shift in power and influence as nation states, crime and hacktivist groups with high levels of motivation, attempt to control and exploit Cyberspace.