Huawei and FT Live seminar addresses fundamental needs for sustainable growth

Shenzhen:  As cybersecurity has become a critical issue, the urgent need for even greater cooperation between the public and private sector was highlighted in a joint seminar by FT Live and Huawei. Together with Huawei Senior Cyber Security Advisor Colm Murphy; OneWeb Cloud Security Architect Lead, Dr. Wendy Ng; and UNESCO Trailblazing Women in Tech cyber security expert Jane Frankland, the session explored how technologies such as AI, big data, and the cloud are presenting increasingly complicated cyber security threats. With the acceleration of cloud computing and most critical digital infrastructure owned by the private sector in an increasingly regulated environment, the question addressed was how industries can focus on cyber security to create a safe, environment for all stakeholders.

Key recommendations and takeaways from the “Protecting critical infrastructure from cyber-attacks” seminar were as follows:

One of the most fundamental challenges is the shortage of cyber security skills in the workforce and how the demand is set to increase. This is an opportunity to promote cybersecurity at all levels and make the industry more inclusive by addressing the current gender imbalance and thereby enhancing the future development of the talent pool. Gender and cultural diversity can offer a business significant revenue improvement, lower regulatory fines and less risk.

Investment in cyber security and relevant resources should be considered and viewed as equally important as financial health for any organization. This includes building cyber literacy capabilities starting from the top of a company or government.

Preventing fragmentation of standards is important because it enables closer collaboration between the industry and corporates. Whilst Huawei has been one of the main contributors to the 5G related cyber security solutions and patents, it continues to call on other companies and governments to work together. For example, the benefits of standards such as GDPR and proposed NIS 2 Directive demand compliance.

In her advice to organizations, OneWeb’s Dr Wendy Ng shared technical recommendations regarding Zero-Trust explaining “verification is effectively required before access to any resource or asset. To ensure operational agility and useability, the process is streamlined, automated and managed through confederated identity.”

UNESCO Trailblazing Women in Tech’s Jane Frankland emphasized why diversity is important explaining “Attackers are varied and come from an array of backgrounds, parts of the world and with different experiences. To defend ourselves, it’s essential we have a varied team who don’t all think like us. That way, we don’t end up with group think or falling for attacks that are being written purely for men.”

Huawei Europe’s Colm Murphy concluded “Every actor in the cyber security eco-system has a role to play – manufacturers, service providers, operators, governments and regulators. By working together, the value of digitalization can be realized for all stakeholders to create a safe, sustainable business environment.”

The Huawei and FT Live seminar was the fifth in a series of eight seminars that will take place during 2021.