Event recap: Combatting Cyber Threats: Zero-Trust and the Future of Cybersecurity

The question: what role can zero-trust security play in combatting cyber threats in Canada and around the world?

The place: the conversation was launched at an event CIRA co-organized with partners from Akamai at the United States Embassy in Ottawa on October 19, 2022.

The experts:

• Steve Winterfield, Senior Director, Security Technology and Strategy, Akamai
• Jon Ferguson, General Manager of Cybersecurity and DNS services, CIRA
• Bruce Van Nice, Senior Security Product Management, Akamai
• Moderator: Tanya O’Callaghan, Vice-president, Community investment, Policy and Advocacy, CIRA

The discussion: the panel featured Jon Ferguson, CIRA’s general manager of cybersecurity and DNS services, discussing the role that CIRA has played in helping Canadian organizations implement zero-trust strategies and how partnerships like the one with Akamai have helped Canada combat cyber threats.

One of the key takeaways from the panel: zero-trust is a strategy for protecting your organization—it’s not just one tactic or tool you can use to combat cyber threats.

The highlights:

• “What’s at issue here is trust—you trust the bank’s going to keep your money secure, you trust the hospital is going to be there to provide care,” said Winterfield. “There’s so much you just assume is going to be there and you assume it’s going to be secure. What we’re seeing is that so much of our economy is on the internet right now that the threat is following us.” -Steve Winterfield
• “Most people don’t even know how many things in their house are connected to the internet. They don’t even know that these things may be sending information to the internet on a continuous basis and worst of all they don’t even know the vendors of those things didn’t pay a lot of attention to security.” -Bruce Van Nice

The #QOTD:

Looking to learn more? Book a meeting with Holly Story, Territory Account Representative.