LARNACA has played host to the latest in a series of Europe-wide cyber security summits. Intended for key IT specialists, the summits cover enterprise security strategies devised by the New York-based International Council of Electronic Commerce Consultant (EC-Council) – the international organisation driving standards and skills for e-Commerce Consultants – and its master distributors throughout Europe, the specialist cyber crime fighters, SSR-i.
The one-day event in Cyprus was hosted by Computrain, which has become one of SSR-i’s partners in Europe to deliver the range of EC-Council courses for both IT professionals and computer users, who need to know the basics of computer security.
The summit covered hacking, intellectual property theft, corporate espionage, security solutions, legal considerations, risks and mitigation strategies. There was also a live hacking session to showcase vulnerabilities often found in many systems.
“The event highlighted the risks and exposures that all organisations face with regard to unauthorised intrusions and theft on their business systems,” said George Thrasivoulou, of Computrain Cyprus. “Not only offering an insight into the tools and methods used by unethical hackers, the seminar explored when and why an organisation can become a victim – and explained the counter-measures available.”
Seminar delegates included representatives of CyTA, Cyprus University of Technology as well as Laiki Bank, Hellenic Bank and international organisations including KPMG.
“These seminars make delegates aware of the potential dangers to their systems’ security. They also provide the knowledge and skills that help to prevent security breaches or, if they occur, trace and then secure them,” said SSR-i’s Rajive Kapoor.
According to Sanjay Bavisi, president of the EC-Council, losses from cyber crime are increasing because of improvements in automation, increasing the speed of attacks; increasingly sophisticated attack tools, and the increasing permeability of firewalls, among other things. He stated: “Organisations’ greatest losses because of cyber crime – from such things as identity theft and computer-generated fraud – are now greater than those posed by systems being attacked by viruses or worms.”
Cyber security commentator Bob Little told the Cyprus Mail that, “the summit was part of a series of eight events taking place around Europe. Larnaca was chosen as one of the venues as there is a serious business community in Cyprus and it needs to be aware of the dangers.”
He estimated that $1.6 trillion is lost to business every year due to cyber crime around the world. “This can take the form of identity theft, credit card fraud, online phishing scams, viruses, e-mail hoaxes and the loss of confidential information.”
According to Little, “the US government has reported that revenues made by criminals through cyber crime now exceed those from the illegal drug trade.”
