Interview with Queeny Rajkowski

“No, definitely not. Insufficient attention to people and cooperation is the weakest link. You have to look at it this way: cybercriminals are just lazy; they want to make a lot of money with little effort. They cast their net digitally and see who hooks in or where they can get in. Awareness programs help ensure that people can recognize this digital net. The crux also lies in cooperation between governments, businesses and IT vendors. Governments and the free market need to share much more information about acute threats, for example.”

“In that respect, the human aspect in cyber security is incredibly important, and there definitely needs to be more investment in that. Actually, the human side is a bit the neglected child. In the Netherlands we have gold in our hands in that area, but we are not exploiting it. Take, for example, the fact that we are one of the most digital populations in the world, but still do disastrously little when it comes to learning digital security in education. An opportunity we are currently missing. We all learn to lock the door when we leave the house, but not yet how to be digitally secure. There is also an important role here for employers. They bear the responsibility to make their staff aware of the threats and keep them up to date.”

“Let go of that shame. And especially let go of the shame about not knowing something, or not knowing how it works. Let go of the shame if a cybercriminal has accidentally managed to get in anyway. Let it go, because 100% security does not exist. If we can move away from that, we can start sharing a lot more knowledge with each other.”

“Try to get cyber security to everyone as much as possible. So don’t just discuss this topic with management, but let everyone who works in the municipality be exposed to it in the coming year. People need to talk to each other about it and then you start working on awareness, knowledge, resilience and so on.”

“Yes, I think there is still a challenge in shaping digital security in the future and connecting it to the physical world. What is not allowed on the street should also not be allowed online. Existing laws and regulations need to be updated to today’s reality, taking the digital world into consideration. Soon we will all be aware and want to do something about it but there are not enough people or resources to meet the demand for cyber security expertise. Governments and companies, even SMEs that have nothing to do with the digital, need to work together more. Cyber security requires deep expertise on a broad front. In terms of technology and people, collaborate or buy in that expertise, rather than doing everything yourself.”