Industry and government were warned that approaches to cyber security have to change if they are to overcome the threat caused by the ‘increasingly sophisticated’ nature of the technology employed.

Speaking at the 2011 Defence IT conference in Bristol, UK, Andrew Rogoyski, partner of Defence Strategy and Solution LLP and chairman of Intellect Cyber Group, argued that cyber security was more relevant today than ever before.

‘Anecdotally, people are saying security remains one of those things that gets negotiated away. That can no longer be the case,’ Rogoyski said.

He said it was ‘not just about the script kiddies and hackers’ they saw before and the threat instead now came from ‘very sophisticated organisations’.

Rogoyski said that it would be an error to simply look at military security, and although this was clearly an important aspect of cyber security, the government needs to look at the issue from a wider perspective.

He added that the government also needed to develop its engagement with the companies that were driving changes in the information world. As the current ‘advanced persistent threat’ was to obtain information rather than for effect, people may never know they have been targeted.

Rogoyski also warned about the ‘shrinking pool’ of young educated engineers, because the appeal is not as great as in sectors such as banking.

People’s attitudes towards the exchange of information have developed, and the fact that many have access to advanced ‘smart phones’ and are connected on an international scale, shows that governmental approaches to dealing with cyber threats has to be in keeping with these advances.

‘Humans remain in the loop. None of this would happen without negligent or malicious intent from people, and we need to pay more attention to how we manage people, how we manage information the people carry around in their heads, and their equipment,’ Rogoyski concluded.