Red Helix is a leader in cyber security and network performance that has been supporting UK businesses and infrastructure for four decades. Rob Pocock began his career there nearly 25 years ago after moving over from the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA).
Why does demystification matter?
People at board level want evidence and explanations when investing in technology to defend their organisation from new cyber threats or improve network performance. In many boardrooms – especially in the small and medium-sized segment of the UK market – expertise in these areas is limited.
If boards are not careful, trends, fashions and buzzwords can exert undue influence with unwelcome and costly long-term consequences. We currently, for example, see AI, machine learning and “post-quantum” labels slapped on so many solutions.
Uncertainty and the fear of complexity can also paralyse decision-making, leaving an organisation exposed or under-performing. Many of us are familiar with the Gartner Hype Cycle, so we should be able to step back and simplify the options we put in front of decision-makers. We should demystify what appears to be a complex idea and say, actually, it is not.
What do you mean by simplifying?
As an industry we like to over-complicate and make ourselves sound clever. Technology has improved but it has not changed as fundamentally as people claim. If you step back, you will find a lot of technology is recycled with a different name.
I have worked with mainframe computing, PCs, the shift to data centres and the adoption of thin clients, followed by disaster recovery and the evolution of cloud. But if you listen to the media, you gain the impression these were explosive revolutions, whereas they were step-by-step developments. The cloud is essentially a data centre in a different place.
The whole industry is renowned for reinventing the wheel. About 15 years ago we were all talking about anti-virus and now we talk about EPP (end-point protection platforms) and EDR (end-point detection and response). These are evolutions rather than revolutions.
How do you approach this?
A problem-solving approach should be fundamental. Being a glass-half-full person is admittedly unusual on the cyber side of business where FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) is still a sales technique.
I stress the positive effects more than the fear factor. If you remember, the messaging around GDPR was always menacing rather than about the benefits of being resilient, secure and compliant.
I also seek to be a bridge between technology vendors and customers. Vendors often want their kit to seem complicated and innovative, but I am ready to tell them it is not what customers need right now. When the solutions are ready, it is my job to break down the complications so customers understand the value they can gain.
Any aspiring Technical Director or equivalent should be focusing on simplification in these discussions. If you want traction with a board, you need to be armed with explanations and recognise that IT risk is still not well understood in many enterprises.
Where do complex technologies like AI and quantum fit into these discussions?
AI is everywhere but is losing some of its mystery. We know, for example, that cyber criminals use AI in phishing attacks which seemed very threatening when they began. Essentially, they use AI to gather data more efficiently and to draft better-worded and more relevant phishing emails at scale.
Yet we can defeat these AI-powered phishing attacks with updated awareness training and a variety of AI tools such as behavioural analysis and simulated phishing attacks.
We are starting to see where AI and machine learning really work and where they don’t. They can be hugely beneficial, enabling us, for example, to monitor network traffic and spot anomalous activity in network detection and response (NDR) technology. This is more efficient than alternatives – we just need to explain it.
Quantum is certainly becoming bigger, with a lot of noise about cracking encryption in minutes rather than years. As technology advances, we will have quantum-resilient algorithms, entering a game of cat-and-mouse between threat actors on one side, and IT and national security on the other. The biggest current problem with quantum is data-harvesting, as criminals steal data now, hoping to decrypt it when the technology is available to them.
You entered IT at an early age – how do you see changes in training and education?
I got into the digital world early on when serving an electronic apprenticeship at UKAEA. Moving to Red Helix, I gained a deep understanding of many technologies and the challenges facing network operators, the Ministry of Defence and enterprise customers – which was an excellent grounding.
What is different now is the younger generations have gone through IT education and have IT-based degrees, including cyber, whereas when I started 25 years ago this was less widespread.
Youngsters come into the industry with a rounded education and are transferring and absorbing knowledge quickly, which is what we need. But that does have a downside because they have a narrower, more uniform experience which can restrict insight. This affects their approaches to risk management. At Red Helix, we work with our technically advanced recruits to develop their skillset in this area, which is paying off.
IT education at school level is important, as are coding skills. We need more children with the right aptitude to consider a career in IT instead of game development or finance. As an industry, we should also push on with more neuro-diverse recruitment, which has the potential to bring different aptitudes and approaches to problem-solving.
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