CSO, Thales and Technical Data Roundtable Abstract: “Leveraging shared experiences and insights to define best practice ways to protect user privacy”

Silks at Crown Sydney recently hosted a very memorable roundtable that brought together Australia’s leading cyber security experts to discuss the following topics: Protecting user privacy in turbulent times.

The CSO Australia event, a collaboration between Thales and Tech Data, provided a great opportunity for all participants to share their experiences and insights on the key cyber security challenges facing organizations today. In particular, we focused on how data protection processes can be strengthened by maintaining and strengthening them. User Privacy.

The conversation, moderated by CSO Australia Editor Ed Kennedy, demonstrated the importance of continuing dialogue within Australia’s cybersecurity sector around data discovery, classification and protection. In addition to this, other important topics discussed were who should have access and control, compliance requirements, and incident response mechanisms.

For Eric Reyes, strategic client director at Thales, the conversation surrounding the dynamics of data and risk was particularly vivid.

“This event highlighted how important data protection is in mitigating risk and managing an organization’s critical assets.”

“A particularly insightful discussion point was around embedding data security into our processes to protect our business and customers from the risk of cyber breaches and ensure compliance. Second, another key takeaway from this discussion is that organizations should actively seek ways to incorporate cyber and data security into their business processes, rather than simply doing it as an afterthought. ” said Reyes.

“Ultimately, embedding data security into business processes will help organizations meet regulatory compliance and data sovereignty requirements, and reduce the risk of data being misused during a cyber incident. It helps organizations protect their critical assets and, as other attendees mentioned, protect their customers.”

Reyes’ thoughts found much in common with Tech Data’s Business Development Manager Richard Charlton’s post-event reflections.

“Tech Data is pleased to be joining these forward-thinking organizations in discussions about the latest best practices in data protection,” said Charlton.

“The future of data security relies on a scalable, agile, data-centric approach. Enterprises must continually adapt and respond to new challenges.”

“Organizations must seamlessly integrate security into their processes to ensure asset security, compliance, customer protection, and data-driven innovation.”

The roundtable comes at a time when Australian businesses are under increasing pressure to protect the data they hold.

Between 2022 and 2023, a number of high-profile breaches occurred at major Australian companies. Events such as these require organizations to adhere to higher standards and increase internal awareness and ability to anticipate such threats.

These incidents also require organizations to review and improve their cybersecurity practices and reassure customers that all steps are being taken to ensure the data they hold is protected.

Moreover, efforts to change this are Privacy Act 1988 The Australian government has tightened privacy laws and increased fines for data breaches following a number of high-profile breaches, putting further pressure on businesses.

These issues were thoroughly discussed at the roundtable and, as many attendees noted during post-event reflections, remain topics that require continued discussion in the Australian cybersecurity community.

As one participant said after the roundtable, “The key learning from this event is that organizations are now better aware of the threats that are occurring or could occur. .”

“It’s important to educate your internal staff from top to bottom, initially through onboarding and training efforts, and generally through ongoing learning and awareness efforts. I think simulating and coordinating the necessary teams to deal with the situation is a particularly good practice and awareness tool.”

“Furthermore, it is wise for organizations to set up frameworks and processes such as ISO27001, NIST, and PCI-DSS. It is also essential to instill a DevSecOps culture and practices, and understand where the data resides and Knowing where and what your data is passing through is important for any organization.”

Another participant said: “As cybersecurity leaders, many of us have seen the emergence of many new technologies over the years. AI is the latest of these, and one that has sparked many heated debates thanks to pop culture phenomena such as is causing. terminator movie. “

“AI, like any new technology that has come before us, has the potential to have both positive and negative outcomes. By collectively deciding what AI should be, we can overcome past mistakes. and avoid expending additional effort to impose retroactive controls in the future.”

Thank you to everyone at CSO, Thales, and Tech Data for participating in this roundtable.