Digital Security by Design Monthly Round-Up: August 2022

Article type: Blog
author Lara
Joseph

The DSbD team is preparing to exhibit at the upcoming International Cyber Expo, which is taking place at Olympia in London on 27 th and 28 th September. Visit us on stand H41 to learn more about our industry-leading programme and how your company can access Arm’s prototype hardware, based on CHERI developed by University of Cambridge, and technical support from Digital Catapult, including £15,000 in funding. Take the opportunity to see Arm’s Morello board and ask questions to our experts.

We will be also hosting a roundtable discussion titled ‘Security in telecoms networks virtualisation/cloudification – challenges and opportunities’, aimed at Telecommunications companies. Chaired by Paul Ceely, Director of Technology Strategy at Digital Catapult, it will explore areas where this pioneering technology architecture could bring substantial security benefits. You can register for the roundtable here.

There have been some big cyber stories in the news this month too. Apple disclosed serious vulnerabilities for iPhones, iPads, and Macs, which could have potentially allowed attackers to take complete control of devices. Professor John Goodacre, Challenge Director, Digital Security by Design, UK Research and Innovation shared his thoughts on these vulnerabilities. “Unfortunately, we live in a world where those developing software must continuously introduce fixes. Equally, customers too must apply those patches, often with some urgency to address the vulnerabilities. Until we can build security in by design, such stories demonstrate the importance of updating one’s devices regularly.

John also shared his thoughts on data breaches for the financial sector, following the IBM data breach report showing that financial services breaches were on the rise. “Even with squeaky clean cyber hygiene and the best of practices, organizations are still suffering cyber-attacks.  In addition to limiting human error in the management and use of systems, it is becoming increasingly important to consider potential human error in the development and supply of a system. Organisations are needing to learn how to ask whether systems are configured by default to be secured, or how, for example it can maintain by design its intended operation when also suffering a vulnerability. Today, around 70% of ongoing reported software vulnerabilities can leave an entire system open to exploitation. OT/IT financial organisation procurement need to understand how selecting one computer over another could ensure exploitations can be blocked by design and therefore significantly reduce the cyber risk of a successful vulnerability attack.

 

 

You can find out more about the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund here

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