For the third consecutive year, cybersecurity will be highlighted as a core issue in our digital transformation as a society. Why should we give it such a pivotal role?
I believe it is essential to realise that it is not enough to simply require and rely on the organisations we work for or are part of to protect our technological working environments. Cybersecurity is one of the main challenges facing citizens and organisations in this increasingly digital age. In the context of increasing digitisation in our personal and professional relationships, our relationship with technology itself has to change.
In last year’s training, I insisted on the importance of including the construction and transmission of #Cyberethics in this increasingly #Cybernetic society into all technological training, reclaiming the active and decisive role we have as people in all forms of interconnectivity. This year, I want to continue to emphasise the importance of feeling that you are a vital, active and decisive part of any security system. We must each take responsibility for our role in the security chain. Even more so if we are involved in training and supporting young people because we not only have to adopt measures but also pass them on.
- Why two separate courses this year?
In last year’s training we realised that people had different levels of knowledge and awareness and, above all, we had to deal with different spheres of implementation. On the one hand, there were the users and, on the other hand, the technical people responsible for implementing security in their environments.
That is why, this year, we are tackling these issues by offering two courses:
1.- “Cybersecurity; are they protecting me? Are we protecting ourselves? … I protect myself!” A course aimed at users without responsibilities in implementing security in their working environments. It will teach us to understand and configure our devices, how to surf the net safely and how to be alert to various types of attacks and how to react to them.
2.- “Cybersecurity; if I have to protect myself, where do I focus my attention?” A course for people who have certain technical responsibilities in technological environments. This course focuses on basic multi-device and multi-network configurations (understanding and optimising routers and VPNs). But we will not only focus on this; we will also seek to enhance the awareness and training of the people who make up these networks, as we know that we are the source and solution of most significant security incidents.
- Based on this, cybersecurity transcends global and individual levels. Is it one of the main challenges of this decade?
Since anyone can be the target of a cyber-attack, it is vital to understand the benefits and risks of using technology. Sometimes, these risks are based on a lack of attention to security protocols or ignorance of the most fundamental concepts of computer security, other times, on malicious external or internal attacks. And, we cannot forget natural disasters such as power outages, floods and fires that can cause loss of crucial information for us and our corporate environment.
- Why would you encourage people to take these courses?
Because as argued above, the challenge lies in assimilating that people are ultimately responsible for identifying and protecting our data. And, I think these courses can be a good start for that.
We will learn to identify what we have to protect in each case, what the potential risks are in each case and device and, above all, how to use the appropriate measures to tackle those risks.
