HYLAND
A New Approach to Cyber Defense
e challenges posed by cyber-attack demand an effective IT security
response; but that response needs to be seen in the context of a new
paradigm of holistic security, with an emphasis on education and effective
incident management. Holistic security has two vital insights that differ
from traditional approaches to IT security. e first is that human behavior
is central to effective cyber-security. Understanding human behavior, both
that of the attacker and that of those in the defending organization, is
essential to the design and implementation of effective security systems.
e second insight is that essentially all aspects of organizational activity
are interconnected—an interconnectivity brought about through the rise
of digital networks.
Education
Any government seeking to improve its cyber-security capability needs
better education at every level. A strong university focus on cyber issues
will be important in producing the outstanding individuals who are
critical to ensuring a nation's cyber-security into the second quarter
of the 21st century, and initiatives such as the British Cyber-Security
Challenge8 are already proving their worth. However, these are still no
more than a beginning. e requirement for cyber-security education
and development can be considered in three tiers.
In the upper tier, there will be a need to bring in new generations of
outstanding gifted computer scientists and top-end covert internet
operators in larger numbers than ever before, particularly to support a
nation's specialist military and security units which will require a cadre
of outstanding individuals with world-class abilities in cyber-operations;
this will need to be significantly increased and constantly refreshed to
