In the latest of our Expert Profiles, we’re pleased to talk to our Cyber Expert, Klaid Mägi.
Klaid has had an illustrious career in Cyber and as part of his work with Cyber4Dev, he has been instrumental in supporting partners across the globe to improve and enhance their cyber security strategies.
How did you get into Cyber?
During my childhood I was always interested in fancy tech toys, new technologies and what we might call future topics; I was always curious and interested in seeing where things were going. When I started to study computer networks in the mid 1990’s this was still a relatively new subject, so being a curious person, this interested me.
Curiosity has always driven me to explore the unknown. When it comes to digital communication, it is not always known and well understood what is going on inside the wire. Cyber Security is the ultimate frontier to fight the invisible enemy. Developing the ideas and strategies and learning from the best practices has provided me with a rather unique skillset which has been seasoned with exciting challenges both at home and abroad.
What are the key attributes of a good cyber security professional?
In my personal view, good cyber security professionals think differently, they have a brain that is perhaps a different shape? You have to have a healthy level of paranoia and that paranoia has to be in place so that you can see potential threats everywhere. If that level of paranoia and awareness isn’t in place, then you’re not only open to vulnerabilities but it is also difficult to work in this field. There is a perception that Cyber Security is a mysterious subject and when you combine that with a curious mind, an amount of paranoia and will to change something, that’s a good reason for being in the field of Cyber Security.
What do you feel has been the greatest catalyst for change?
Twenty five years ago, there were mainly low level and low impact incidents that security specialists had to deal with and those cases were definitely not main stream media topics. That’s not the case today as the volume of incidents and the level of their impact is constantly increasing because our dependence on technology in all areas of our lives means that attacks have a deeper and in some cases even grave impact. Just as one random example, consider the impact that cyber security has on food production. Today, a baker bakes bread with a recipe programmed through technology. Think of that one possibly crucial ingredient. If that technology is compromised, this will have a huge impact on production and food supply chains. That is the extent of the impact that cyber security has today.
Our CIIP impact is increasing now and then the threat is again, deepening. Cyber dependency is now part of all our lives and so the need for governments as the role models and guardians of the population is to prioritise resilience has never been greater.
One of the most stark changes in Cyber over the last three decades is the profile of bad actors and hackers in general. Thirty years ago, the profile of a hacker was someone who had an established profile, was probably over thirty years of age. Today, this has completely changed. The technology that hackers use has now become so easily accessible and advanced that teenagers are now able to hack. In some cases it is just the curiosity what drives them but there are also other factors such as fame and money. Sometimes just a grudge against the system provides them the motivation to cause significant damage in terms of availability, reliability, reputation, not to mention the financial losses.
A very important point as well is that back in the early days, hackers had to search for targets to attack and now, such is our dependency on tech, hackers really don’t have to search too hard to find targets, we ourselves are targets.
“Data is the new oil”
Many countries have declared that cyber crime is the most common type of crime they are facing. Criminals also looking for easier way to make(steal?) money. I would even say that nowadays cyber crime is most secure way to commit crime.
What is the key differentiator in our approach and how does our core value of development support better resilience?
Cyber Security awareness is now more widespread and its importance is understood across the world now, to different degrees across countries. Our approach is flexible, not prescriptive and we are responsive to the needs of each country. We mentor, support and encourage our partner countries to help them find the correct solutions for their needs.
Our team is consists of well seasoned experts and we have a great combination of cyber expertise and experience from across Estonia, UK and the Netherlands. We have been successful to date because of our partnership approach and we have already been able to see the development in cyber maturity amongst the countries that we work with.
Key emerging trends?
The situation will become more serious with bigger impacts from Cyber-attacks. Bad guys are collecting information every day. Data is the new oil. The potential for even larger scale attacks is ever present and cyber security professionals need to continue to have a healthy level of paranoia as I mentioned before to have the necessary preparedness in order to avoid and mitigate the emerging threats.
Autonomous vehicles and the further expansion and adoption of smart devices will make cyber security more important for individuals.
In terms of the cyber community, I think that we will continue to expand our best practice principles and information sharing, which will be essential. I truly hope that this will be the case, so we can work together and learn from past incidents, as this is the only way that we will learn. It’s important that people know that you don’t have to work alone, there is a community of experts out there who are working from the same protocols, the same systems. The more we learn, share and help each-other the better chances we have of reducing threats.
