Conversations with Dez

I caught up with Val Bercovici, Founder & CEO at Chainkit, a Software-as-a-Service company that builds cyber security solutions, with a corporate mission to eliminate blind spots in cyber security and data privacy. In this show we discuss the every present and increasingly mission critical topics of Cybersecurity, Cyber war, and the over arching theme of Cyber crime in today's increasingly digital and "always on" / "always connected" modern world, with the added challenge of a global population challenged with living through a global pandemic in the corm of the COVID19 novel derivative of coronavirus. We kick off with a fun introduction to Val and his early life and inspirations, through to his academic and career path which lead him to this amazing challenge to build and run a business which aims to help solve what for want of a better description is ( as we discuss on this show ) a "digital World War 3". Val also gives us great insights as to why the war against Cyber Crime and Cyber Security requires thinking akin to Playing Chess with a strategic approach rather than playing Checkers in reaction mode. We also discuss the emergence of what are in effect now Military-Grade Cyber Weapons being used more often than not by "state actors" as well as highly organised professional cyber criminals and cyber crime organisations - hacking is a well oiled business now, it's no longer the realm of "script kiddies" and bulletin board modem dialup phreakers. Val shares his thoughts around why we’re seeing unprecedented growth in Cyber Attack headlines over the past few years, and in particular what’s changed to bring this about. In keeping with the great Chess vs Checkers analogy, Val also covers why he and his team recommends CxO's need to thin like a Cyber General, that is Play chess, anticipate adversarial counter-measures (i.e. to address the reportedly now %39 undetected attacks) to prepare / react. I also ask Val for his thoughts on where we are head and his recommendations regarding "next Steps", in particular around the likes of Audit Trails, why they are the lifeblood of any modern Cyber Defence strategy & solution, knowing that still today, most organisations unfortunately only have event logs to fall back on. And we wrap up with Val's "over the horizon" views on what's coming over the next 12 to 18 months, what big topics organisations need to be discussing today in board rooms, what actionable takeaways they can immediately consider putting in place, as Val's view is: "The Future is already here, but unevenly distributed. We saw this with income gaps pre-COVID19 and now with business growth OR failure in the coronavirus era. InfoSec maturity will play out the same way. Companies that don’t evolve their InfoSec rapidly to the reality of COVID and associated Cyber Risk, simply won’t survive (due to Ransomware + Cyber Insurance financial pressures)." Val's very much of the view that these are national economic and international security priorities right now, which will foster public-private sector partnerships for the likes of: 1. Increased national Cyber Warfare (defensive & offensive) investment & transparency 2. New government cyber policy/regulation (that transparency part) and 3. More direct law enforcement coordination with the business sector and their insurers. Tune in now for all of these amazing topics and more, and enjoy a great fireside chat with one of the most innovative thinkers in the world of cyber security, and indeed on of the leading forces in thought leadership in the war against cyber crime. This podcast was made in partnership with Chainkit. For more information please visit: - Chainkit website: https://bit.ly/chainkit-homepage - Chainkit on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/chainkit-linkedin - Chainkit on Twitter: https://bit.ly/chainkit-twitter - Chainkit on YouTube: https://bit.ly/chainkit-youtube #sponsored #chainkitinfluencer .