Last month it was reported that British intelligence agency MI5 had, in a series of high-level meetings, painted a worrying picture for leading British corporations in which their IT workers may become targets for foreign powers seeking sensitive data.
The idea of an IT department infiltrated with double agents may sound a little fanciful but the threat of a rival nation trying to influence them is far more realistic than many may think according to Uri Rivner, vice-president for cyber strategy at Israeli security company BioCatch.
“Obviously there are cases like this,” says Rivner, who compares the situation to having “someone on the inside” of a bank before committing a robbery. Of the companies or organisations that will be targeted, he says that “whatever a nation is good at, that’s interesting to other nations”.
In the case of the UK, he says this may be the financial sector, while in Scandinavia two industries in particular, telecommunications and mining, “have been targeted”. (more)
