Erdem Aksoy is Deputy Head of IT Process & Information Security at Çimtaş Group and is responsible for the cyber security for Çimtaş Group companies. As a cyber security professional with a highly impressive skillset ranging from ISO 27001 Information Security, ITIL/ISO 20000 IT Service Management, & ISO 22301 Business Continuity Management Systems to IT Management and R&D Management.
As one of the speakers at #CS4CA MENA, we caught up with Erdem to learn more about his job and how he keeps his spirits up while protecting his company’s critical infrastructure:
Q. What gets you up in the morning?
The idea of doing something better than yesterday gets me up in the morning. Life is meaningful when you improve something, this can either be something at work or in your personal life.
Q. How do you explain your job title to someone outside the cyber security industry?
I manage the processes to protect the company’s information from getting into other people’s hands.
Q. What are some of the key recent shifts in the cybercrime threat landscape that you’ve been seeing, and what do you think they mean for cyber security?
There are 2 shifts I’ve been seeing lately, the first one is related to state-backed cybercrime which can also be called cyberwar. Cyberwars will be the new front so I believe that states will invest huge amounts here.
The other one is related to businesses and end-users; malware was always a problem for many years, but we are now seeing targeted attacks combined with social engineering. Awareness levels of business leaders and end-users must be increased in order to invest in security, alongside a competent workforce and state of the art technology.
Q. Is cybercrime evolving quicker than security?
Of course, it has always been like this. Back in the days before the invention of locks, people used to hide their personal belongings, but the thieves always found new ways to steal them, so locks were invented and improved over time.
The same is happening to our “digital belongings” now. Crime always evolve faster than security, the speed of our response shows our level of resilience – security teams must be resilient.
Q. What do the next 5 years hold for your industry?
Demand for higher quality, shorter delivery times and less costs, all thanks to digitalisation. And hopefully adequate level of security on my side.
Q. If you could change one thing about your work right now, what would it be?
People. Some people just don’t have any idea about security no matter how much you train them for awareness.
Q. What is the best or worst security advice you’ve ever heard?
“Do not share your password with others!” It is the best and the worst advice at the same time depending on your point of view. It is the best because many people don’t care about sharing their passwords. It is the worst because it is something fundamental, we shouldn’t even be talking about it.
Q. What’s your favourite way to stay informed about cyber security?
I read security blogs, I am a member in many professional messaging groups where fellow experts share cyber security news and follow security experts in social media to keep myself up to date.
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Learn more about CS4CA MENA 2020 and secure your discounted Early Bird delegate pass (save $250 before November 20th) to meet industry leaders like Erdem this January in Dubai.
