Cybersecurity focus of GMIT Digital West conference
LEADERS in public and private sector organisations along with academics will share cybersecurity and trust stories at this year’s GMIT Digital West conference, which takes place fully online on https://digitalwest.biz/ on Tuesday, January 25, from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m.
The free event will be opened by GMIT President Dr. Orla Flynn (10 a.m.), followed by guest speakers Dr. Eoin Byrne and Eamon Larkin, Cyber Ireland; Aoife Long, Cyber Skills Education and Public Engagement Manager, MTU; Mathie Gorge, CEO at VigiTrust; Dr. Seamus Dowling, Cybersecurity lecturer, GMIT; Paul Johnson, Cyber Forensics Manager, AGS; Colm Healy, founder and CEO of Corrata; Louise O'Sullivan, Security Services Manager and Lei Shao, Security and Risk Advisor at HEAnet; and Rebecca Springett, Titan HQ Leading Cloud Security.
Said Dr. Flynn: “GMIT is delighted to be hosting the fifth annual Digital West conference in partnership with the Mayo Local Enterprise Office and our Atlantic Technological University partners IT Sligo and Letterkenny IT. The theme of this year’s free online conference - Cybersecurity and Trust - has enormous relevance for public and private sector organisations but also for us as individuals in society. There is a great line-up of speakers and this is an event not to be missed.”
One of the changes wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic was the forced shift to a hybrid office model and subsequent rise in the number of cyber-attacks targeting organisations and companies through home offices.
Statistics reveal that:
* 68% of business leaders feel their cybersecurity risks are increasing (Accenture)
* Personal data was involved in 58% of breaches in 2020 (Verizon)
* On average, every employee has access to 11 million files (Varonis)
* More than 77% of organisations do not have an incident response plan (Cybint)
Andrea Manning, founder of Cyberpie and MC at Digital West 2022, says: “Cybersecurity is no longer just an IT problem. It affects us all - whether it’s a ransomware attack that hits the payroll software that sends you your salary, the takeover of your social media accounts or the loss of customer trust due to a data breach. As an industry we should be doing more to educate people about what they can do rather than what they can’t do. The panel of speakers at Digital West this year does just that.”
Laura Hegarty, lecturer in IT at GMIT, and one of the founders of Digital West, adds: “This event is a real opportunity for us all to learn about the threats (big and small) and changes we can implement to help secure our data. The speakers will bring real-life experiences to the discussions and give all attendees tips to take away and reflect upon.
“Cybersecurity is very much a human problem with 95% of cybersecurity breaches caused by human error. This year’s theme is for everyone, not just the technically minded.”
The free online event will be streamed live on January 25 from 10 a.m. on https://digitalwest.biz on https://gmitihubs.clr.events/event/131917:digital-west-2022
For further information about GMIT courses in Digital Media & Marketing, Cybersecurity and Digitalisation for SMEs as well as all other Springboard/HCI funded upskilling courses, visit GMIT Courses or GMIT School of Business https://www.gmit.ie/business/school-business