Leo Taddeo worked for the FBI for 20 years where he was special agent responsible for New York’s cyber and special operations division and has addressed members of industry group Mersey Maritime. Tony McDonough reports

Cyber security is one of the hot issues for companies of all shapes and sizes in the 21st century – yet too many firms pay little attention to the issue.

Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show business cyber crime in the UK soared by 63%, many involving either computer misuse or malware.

The rise in business-related computer misuse to 21,745 offences was largely due to a 145% rise in computer malware attacks the past year to 8,292 offences.

The issue of protecting sensitive data is about to become even bigger with the introduction of wide-ranging new data protection laws in May, General Data Protection Regulation replaces all existing data protection regulation and applies to all companies in the EU, no matter how small, that process and hold personal data.

Leading authority

It was against this backdrop that members of industry body Mersey Maritime heard from on one the world’s leading cyber security experts at a Face-2-Face event at the offices of Tilney in Liverpool, organised in partnership with DONMAC Data.

Don Mac Millan, chairman of Stellamar Employment Solutions, a Mersey Maritime member, introduced Cyxtera to the membership through DONMAC Data, its partner in the UK and Europe (a DONMAC Group company with Stellamar).

Leo Taddeo, chief information security officer of Cyxtera Technologies, worked for the FBI for 20 years where he was special agent responsible for New York’s cyber and special operations division. He is now regarded as an expert within the field and sits on a number of important cyber security boards in the US.

Now working with Cyxtera Technologies, Leo is on a mission to stop people applying yesterday’s security to today’s IT.

New approach

In his talk to members he talked about his experience and best practice as well as Cyxtera’s new approach to cyber security. He related tales of how large companies and their IT infrastructure were not immune to cyber attack and some had suffered losses in the hundreds of millions.

Mr Taddeo said: “We can’t protect modern IT infrastructures, such as cloud and complex hybrid environments, with yesterday’s security tools. Leaders in government and private enterprise need to think ahead.

“Now is the time to implement dynamic user access controls, such as software-defined perimeter technology, and advanced analytics to protect against today’s threats.”

According to Cyxtera, while infrastructure technology has advanced at breakneck speed, infrastructure security has stayed “unevolved, static and slow moving”.

It urges companies to adopt a new way of thinking about security so it is “resilient, intelligent and integrated”.

Cyxtera claims to deliver that new way with software-defined automation and agility, advanced analytics, and experienced threat response—in the cloud, on-premises or from a global footprint of world-class data centres.