Protecting your most vital data

Morten K. Thomsen

Version2

25 June 2012

In an interview with Danish IT publication Version2, PA cyber security experts Dan Haagman and Janus Friis Bindslev explain how PA helps organisations understand hackers, how they work and talks about how organisations can protect their most vital data.

Among other services, PA provides penetration testing, otherwise known as ethical hacking, which helps customers tackle their IT security challenges. “Running penetration tests gives us a system access rate with a percentile rate in the high nineties. However, the identification of a security flaw is not the most interesting thing. What is fascinating is the processes behind this that allowed the flaw in the first place,” says Dan Haagman.

Dan goes on to explain that understanding hacking requires a certain amount of psychological insight: “IT systems are made by human beings and represent how they think. You will always be able to find patterns, and based on the structure of the system we look for the obvious things … Are security flaws due to corporate culture, wrong processes or mere incompetence.”

Janus adds that it is essential to consider IT security and processes holistically: “You have to regard cyber security from a business-related perspective: You can’t protect everything, you have to know the most important security risks and the level of your vulnerabilities.”

For our thinking and insights on tackling the challenges of cyber security, click here.  For more information on PA’s expertise on cyber security, contact us now.