The Cyber Threat: Into the Danger Zone!
- When?
- Wednesday 21 September 2011, 14:00 to 15:00
- Where?
- 39BB02
- Open to:
- Staff, Students
- Speaker:
- Dr Alastair MacWillson, Accenture Technology
Our next Department Seminar speaker will be Dr Alastair MacWillson, Global Managing Director at Accenture Technology Consulting, London.
With the number of ‘cyber attacks’ on the rise, targeting government and industry across the globe, it is clear that most organisations are now facing a whole new category of threat. At the same time, inherent weaknesses in enterprise IT and ineffective approaches to information security are putting organisations at risk as never before. There is a growing realisation that confronting these advanced threats calls for a whole new doctrine of defence. Keeping pace with the digital arms race requires constantly re-evaluating your position against the threats and adapting your information security strategies. Intelligence gathering has become an essential core competency for every security team.
For many organisations, contending with the cyber threat will also demand cultural changes. The information security strategies must take into account that no organisation is impenetrable and instead focus on protecting what matters most.
This presentation will look at the evolving capabilities of the adversary, and how the cumulative impact of legacy security vulnerabilities, combined with business innovation and new disruptive technologies, provides a fertile environment for cyber crime, terrorism and espionage.
Dr. Alastair MacWillson is the Global Managing Partner of Accenture’s global security practice, which comprises of over 4,000 security and risk professionals, and works with business and government leaders around the world on critical issues relating to technology strategy and risk, operational performance and management, cyber and information security, and critical infrastructure protection. He also serves on the leadership council of Accenture’s global technology consulting business and is the current Chair of the Institute of Information Security Professionals.
Prior to joining Accenture in 2002, Dr. MacWillson was the global leader of the technology consulting practice in PricewaterhouseCoopers. During his time with PwC he also had responsibility for the PwC technology venture fund, which had $50m invested in new business activities, and was also the founder and interim global CEO for beTRUSTed, a managed service e-security business of PwC. Having successfully established the beTRUSTed business, he handed over responsibilities to a full-time CEO in early 2002.
Over the past 20 years Dr. MacWillson has lead technology transformation and security projects for major organizations such as Boeing, Northrop Grumman, NASA, QinetiQ, BP, Shell, Barclays, JPM-Chase, World Bank, Ericsson, BT, as well as intelligence, security and defense departments of the UK, US, European, Australian and Indian Governments. He has advised clients on information and cyber security in the nuclear research and nuclear energy sector and has worked on projects for the UKAEA and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Dr MacWillson has acted as an adviser to a number of governments on technology strategy critical infrastructure protection, cyber security and counter terrorism and has sat on related committees for the US and UK governments, the European Commission and the United Nations.
Prior to moving into consultancy in 1990, Dr. MacWillson worked in government service and held senior advisory positions on security and risk related strategy with the UK Foreign Office and, through secondment, with the US State Department. During his government career, Dr. MacWillson completed tours of duty in the Middle East, Moscow and Washington DC as well as working for shorter periods in a variety of other countries.
With over 20 years of experience in information technology, security and applied cryptography, Dr. MacWillson is internationally recognised as an expert in the field. As such, he is a frequent speaker and commentator on technology and security issues and his insights have been featured by some of the top media outlets such as the BBC, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and the Financial Times. During his career Dr. MacWillson has published many articles and papers on technology and risk and has authored journals on cyber and information security, risk, cryptography and cyber terrorism, as well as a widely selling textbook on Hostage Taking Terrorism (McMillan 1992).
Dr. MacWillson has a B.Sc.Hons in Physics, postgraduate diplomas in Computer Science and Digital Imaging, and a Ph.D. in Cryptography.