SAIMC: Johannesburg branch
November 2014
SAIMC
At the September technology evening, Cobus Pool from Proconics shared his knowledge on cybersecurity. Cobus has extensive experience and qualifications after 18 years working in a wide variety of industries. The event was hosted by EOH.
Alvin Seitz (left) presents Cobus Pool with the SAIMC presenters’ certificate.
He said that the Internet has its advantages but with it comes its own unique disadvantage. Cybercrime is illegal activity committed on the Internet wherein the computer is a target, a tool or both. Identity theft, hacking and spreading of viruses are some of the cybercrimes that can be committed.
Cybersecurity refers to the technologies and processes designed to protect computers, networks and data from unauthorised access, vulnerabilities and attacks delivered via the Internet by cybercriminals. Historically there has been an exponential growth in cyberattacks. They can be broken into three categories: cybercrimes against personnel, property and government. To protect against cyberattacks, firewalls, proxy servers and intrusion detection servers can be deployed. It is no longer just commercial systems that get attacked. There is an increasing threat to industrial control systems by:
* Worms and Trojans.
* Code injection.
* Drive-by downloads.
* Exploit kits.
* Denial of service.
* Botnets.
* Phishing.
* Targeted attacks.
Cobus walked us through the very real dangers presented to our control systems by malicious attackers such as Shodan, Google dorks, insider threats and bottom-up attacks.
Some other topics covered were historical trends, recent incident activity, smart grid trends, local South African development and trends, best practices in protection and assessments.
We thank Cobus for his valued and informative presentation.
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