Matthew Lloyd Davies discusses the steps companies must take to stay ahead of malicious behavior and advanced threats.
“Periods of political instability have historically been accompanied by increased cyber activity and today’s situation is no different,” Matthew Lloyd Davies, chief security writer at Pluralsight, told SiliconRepublic.com.
He explained that state-aligned terror groups, criminal networks and politically motivated terrorists often exploit moments of tension to launch malicious campaigns against international governments, infrastructure providers and private sector organisations.
In April alone there were several incidents of breaches of laws and security reported by organizations dealing with sensitive information. For example, Dublin recruitment platform Healthdaq was hit by a cyberattack from hacker group XP95which says it has access to hundreds of thousands of files.
And in April, OpenAI said the organization will work to secure and revise the certification process for its applications running on MacOS following reports of a security problem involving a third-party development tool. It was also reported that a private Discord group could gain unauthorized access to Anthropic’s new AI model. Myths.
“Operations vary greatly in complexity,” notes Lloyd Davies. “Some involve advanced espionage or prolonged infiltration by highly skilled actors, while others are less severe but still disruptive, such as distributed denial-of-service attacks, malware campaigns or the release of stolen data.”
He said: “Importantly, organizations do not need to be directly involved in a country’s conflict to feel the impact. Shared infrastructure, third-party providers and cloud platforms create indirect ways in which cyber activity can spread globally. This means that cybersecurity teams must prepare not only for the most sophisticated attacks, but also for the waves of opportunistic disruptions that often appear.”
A safety net for skills
The security industry is rapidly evolving to the point where threat actors and real professionals alike are increasingly using AI and other advances to create new opportunities. On top of that, employers are finding it difficult to build a consistent talent pool in an environment where cyber resilience now depends on defensive skills that are visible to all employees, not just certain groups.
“Developers, cloud engineers, IT managers and security teams must all understand how to build, deploy and maintain secure systems. Without ongoing skills development in all these roles, as global tensions rise and attacks become more sophisticated, even well-funded security systems can struggle to keep up with emerging threats,” he said.
Organizations that invest in improving their cloud and cybersecurity capabilities, across all employees, will find themselves in a better position to detect security threats early, respond quickly and adapt.
“This means going beyond reactive security measures and embedding cybersecurity capabilities in the broader technology workforce. Upskilling engineers in secure coding, strengthening cloud security technologies and ensuring security teams can effectively use emerging technologies like AI all contribute to a strong defensive posture.”
He suggested that organizations can benefit from letting go of traditional ideas of training such as a one-size-fits-all model and instead of taking skills based on roles or certifications, they should consider hiring based on competence, where companies quickly identify gaps, create teams that can adapt, learn new skills and adapt to threats as they occur.
Lloyd Davies said: “Training programs need to be aligned with real-world operational demands, drawing directly on the evolving attack vectors that security teams face every day and the conflict situations behind them. Infrastructure cannot be secured by theory alone. Context-based learning is essential.
“Cyber teams must be given opportunities to practice and hone their skills in a safe sandbox environment and as cyber attacks continue to evolve, skill development must too.
“Continuous learning without the risk of real-world consequences can allow teams to build confidence while staying updated on emerging threats. Equally important is embedding this learning into regular work progress, to avoid skill development being seen as a ‘one-off,’ so professionals can stay agile and ready to respond effectively to cyber-attacks.”
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