Security Insights

A recent survey suggests that, in the UK at least, boards overestimate their organisations' ability to withstand a cyber attack. And they overstate their ability to recover from an incident, and restore even to minimum viable operations. What does that mean for security, and does it increase risk? And will pressure, from regulators, law makers, and even shareholders and investors, force boards to take cyber resilience more seriously, and view it at least on par with business continuity? Our guests are Paul Cragg, CTO at NormCyber, and Richard Beeston, Chief Operating Officer at Digital Space.

In the first episode of Series 7 of Security Insights,we welcome back Charl van der Walt, head of security research at Orange Cyber Defense. We discuss the key findings of his team's 2026 Security Navigator report, how AI is tipping the balance of power in favour of malicious actors, and why resilience and agility should be on the CISO's agenda for this year.

Cybersecurity is changing its focus. Increasingly, it is less about defence and more about resilience. Organisations have to be able to withstand and recover from an attack. It's no longer about preventing breaches: the sheer volume of cyberattacks means that is no longer possible. Instead, security teams and boards should assume an attack will happen, prepare keep the organisation operating during an incident, and aim to recover as quickly as possible. Our guest is James Blake, VP of global cyber resilency strategy and consulting services at Cohesity. He argues that this means integrating business continuity and disaster recovery with cybersecurity. And organisations should rehearse for cyber incidents, training staff to operate under what can be extreme pressure. A good playbook, Blake suggests, is not enough. Interview by Stephen Pritchard.

Critical infrastructure is on the front line of the war in Ukraine. And as the conflict approaches its fourth year, there is little sign of that changing. Strikes against infrastructure, though, are only part of the picture. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion, and even before, Ukraine’s defenders have waged an equally intense, but less visible, cyber war. What lessons can we draw from Ukraine’s experience? And how can states and businesses protect their critical national infrastructure during war and conflict? And how do the public and private sector deal with the prospect of both kinetic and cyber threats? We discuss this with Mihoko Matsubara, author, associate fellow at the International Institute of Strategic Studies and chief cybersecurity strategist at NTT Corporation.