INCOBRA - Increasing International Science, Technology and Innovation Cooperation between Brazil and the European Union

Cybersecurity experts from various countries met on Tuesday (4) in Brasilia to discuss the state of global cybersecurity and the main challenges of the sector with the advancement of information and communication technologies (ICTs), such as Cloud computing and the Internet of Things (IoT). Only IoT promises to connect 34 billion devices worldwide by 2020, which, according to experts, could further expand cyber threats.

According to Kirstjen Nielsen, chair of the Global Agenda on Risk and Resilience, the hyper connected world scenario and the problems brought about with this, such as the advance of government and private data theft, have meant that more than half of the countries from the United Nations, developed their own legislation on cybersecurity.

"This is a compliance challenge. The rules are not the same, so as an international organization, we need to agree on some basic issues to standardize our vision" Nielsen said during his keynote space at the 20th World Information Technology Congress.

Regulation by itself is already a major challenge in Nielsen's vision. She explains that technologies and the very form of cyber threat evolve exponentially, while "bureaucratic systems" do not keep pace with threats. "Governments need to understand that solving today's problems will generate the challenges of tomorrow. That's why regulatory milestones need to be faster. We need to think of actions as an international community, align regulations, choose which good practices to adopt, which frameworks to use and which guidelines to use" he said.

To achieve such cross-country integration, improving cybersecurity infrastructure is the first step, according to Jan-Ming Ho, a researcher at the Institute of Information Science at Sinica Academy in the Republic of China.

According to Joseph Kelly, former chief of computer intelligence at the US Department of Defense, about 90 percent of gaps in cybersecurity are linked to financial motivations, including financial crime and stealing state secrets. "Hacking generates billions and is one of the most competitive businesses in the world. The market matures as technology advances. Five years ago they stole and sold personal data. They now 'hijack' websites and others to seek redemption" said Kelly.

With the development of Internet of Things, the expert believes that a new environment will be created for hackers to work. "It will be a new route to blackmail. Anyone can have access to anything. This ends up, for example, allowing your car to be stolen easier" he warned.

A simple mistake, when you click on an ad you should not, or open a window from an unknown site, can risk everyone's cyber security. "In most cases, when you have a failure, it's because someone accessed something they should not. It all starts with a single user who walks in and messes up. So it is necessary to invest in people, and to understand that every organization needs this kind of consciousness.” said Kelly

To avoid a worse scenario in the ICT sector, resilience will be the key word. The assessment is from the technical director in Computer Security at the Institute of Software Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, Summer Fowler. "Protection and technology unfortunately are not enough. The threat exists. It is real and made up of several factors. So, in addition to protecting, you need to know how to sustain your organization, not just from cyberattacks, as an entrepreneur way. That's resilience" she said.

The Chairman of the Board of the Global Agenda on Risks and Resilience of the World Economic Forum reiterated that it is necessary to learn from the mistakes to innovate. "We understand that there are errors, but we are not expecting perfection. You have to tolerate mistakes to innovate. The key to resilience is partnership. If we do this in isolation we lose, "concluded Kirstjen Nielsen.