The cybersecurity skills gap is widening due to rapid pace of transformation: Ashton D’Cruz, Executive Director – CAO & CISO, NatWest Markets

In today’s world, both our personal and work lives have gone more online than ever before, and with this the issue of cybersecurity has taken centre stage. Along with factors like upgrading legacy systems and technologies, countering sponsored state attacks, and continuously evolving regulatory landscapes, including laws around data privacy, data security, etc., Ashton D’Cruz, Executive Director – CAO & CISO, NatWest Markets, speaks to Express Computer about some of the other prominent challenges that the security leaders and organisations are facing in the current scenario.

“First and foremost is the challenge of work from home, work from anywhere, with each of us having more than one digital device. At the same time with the expanding network, organisations have more vendors, partners and customers, to deal with. That’s how the entire landscape has increased the risk and the threat factor. It is an exponential link, an increasing landscape that organisations have to deal with,” he says.

D’cruz believes that there is a need to recognise the risk of third-party vendors and the dangers that come with them from a security perspective on the infrastructure and the landscape. “We trust our vendors but at the same time we also need to be aware of the fact that they do bring in the risks, because we allow them access the same way we would for our internal setups. We must recognise and prevent supply chain attacks,” he asserts.

“Another important challenge is the cybersecurity skills gap, particularly as we are progressing at such a rapid pace. I don’t think our educational systems, and our training, etc., is keeping up with the fast pace transformation, and with each passing day we do see the gap widening,” he points out.