US Leading Cybersecurity Firm, FireEye, Says It Was Hacked by a Nation-State — What’s Next for The World of Cybersecurity?
By: Sharon Somi Aludo
Tags: Cybercrime, Nigeria, Africa, Fireeye, Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity

One-on-One with Jovworie Tanshi

I had quality time with my first guest on my one-on-one session. Jovworie is a Cybersecurity expert, fraud analyst, co-founder of SmartCoop, and the author of “Decoding Cybercrime” where he reveals myths and misconceptions about cybersecurity and the failure of internet users to properly get informed about the security of their data while using the internet.

I’m not a cybersecurity expert, so I asked my questions in the best way a non-expert would possibly ask them.

How is it possible for a company as exalted as FireEye to get hacked?

It’s not surprising. The bigger a company gets, the higher the potential of getting compromised. No matter how smart their employees appear to be, there will always be one less informed person that can be used as a weak link to get into their information system. Over 95% of these cases could be just one slight mistake made by one employee.

On a general note, not everyone that has access to critical data in a cybersecurity firm is necessarily a cybersecurity expert. Even some cybersecurity experts don’t have good “data hygiene”. We put these cybersecurity guys too much on a pedestal. Most programmers are just advanced tech-savvy people. They‘re not inclined.

How would you pass this information to the average internet that “trusts” the level of security of their service provider?

Consumers are not to blame. Most of these industries using tech don’t understand the threat landscape; FinTech, Agro Tech Legal Tech, Insure Tech etc. We have more tech-savvy people than tech inclined people. Imagine a bank that allows its users to enable fingerprint for login and transaction authorization having the latter serving as two-factor authentication because the action was carried outdone twice.

What do you think is the future of cybersecurity?

The demand for cybersecurity experts will increase. But unfortunately, there will be very few genuine experts. But ironically, employers will not know the difference. They’ll hire the guy that can speak the best grammar because, at the bidding level, Cybersecurity is all about the terminologies, due to its semi-abstract nature.

What you should know is that over 95% of the compromises that occur are related to human errors. Humans are the ones interacting with these systems. The surest way to always gain access is to interact with one who has access. So, no matter how secure the system is, there will always be gullible humans. We project that there will be more occurrences. Less than 1% of internet users genuinely know how the internet and information systems work and that’s what Cybercrime thrives on. You should read my article on Cybercrime in Nigeria. Where did we get it wrong? More than 50% of the service providers (if I am not mistaken) are not doing a very good job. That’s why consumers are most times easily attacked.

Do you think we consumers have a major part to play in securing our data or it majorly depends on the service providers?

Like I said earlier, more than 50% of the service providers are not doing a good job… it’s good for a subject like cybersecurity to be taught in schools to properly educate the public on the benefits and dangers around the use of the internet.

Conclusion

FireEye has developed more than 300 countermeasures for their customers, and the community at large, to use to minimize the potential impact of the theft of their tools. And they said, “We are sharing these countermeasures with our colleagues in the security community so that they can update their security tools.”

I believe that the internet is here to stay. We have only just begun its use. There could be more than 300 countermeasures for future unforetold cases but if there’s no awareness, preparedness, training, and the technical know-how to use these measures, it will all still be counterproductive. But looking on the bright side, for the sake of Africa and the cybersecurity community, there’s still much work to be done.

If sufficient and proper education on this subject is done at least from the mid-level of education to possibly the highest level, we will have more African skilled cybersecurity experts in the field and we will be more confident to use the internet with a better understanding of the risks it comes with and know how to handle the challenges when it arises.

Want to be a guest on my One-on-One session? Be my guest let’s build a sustainable Africa, using the future today.

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