2851: GHD Digital - Cyber Critical Infrastructure and Risk

[00:00:00] In an era where the lines between physical and our digital worlds continuously blur, the

[00:00:06] security of our critical infrastructure has never been more paramount.

[00:00:10] Well today I've got the privilege of speaking with Kumar, he's the president at GHD Digital,

[00:00:17] a visionary leader steering the helmet one of the world's leading professional service

[00:00:21] companies that could be found in the realm of digital transformation and cybersecurity.

[00:00:27] With a career dedicated to safeguarding the essential systems that power society,

[00:00:32] Kumar brings to the table not just a wealth of experience but also a profound understanding

[00:00:37] of some of the challenges and opportunities at the intersection of technology and security.

[00:00:43] And in this conversation today we're going to delve into some of the cyber security threats

[00:00:47] that are targeting critical infrastructure, the imperative role of AI in enhancing our defence

[00:00:53] mechanisms and of course pioneering efforts of GHD digital in driving forward that digital

[00:01:00] resilience that we all need. But before we get today's guest on I need to pay the bills,

[00:01:04] we've got a huge podcast hosting fee to pay for when we're releasing 30 episodes a month

[00:01:10] and this month I've partnered with a company called Kite Works. Now legacy MFT tools are dated

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[00:02:17] to get you started today. Book a look and hold on tight as I beam your ears all the way to Texas

[00:02:23] where come are he's waiting to join us today? So a massive warm welcome to the show, can you tell

[00:02:29] everyone listening a little bit who you are and what you do? Thank you Neil and an absolute

[00:02:37] pleasure to be on your show. My name is Kumar Parakala, I'm a business leader and an entrepreneur

[00:02:47] been working and building businesses for the last 25 years. Conglue I'm the president of

[00:02:54] GHD Digital, a business that I have at the privilege of founding after my company TechnoWavits

[00:03:03] sold to GHD in 2017 and was given the opportunity to speed the creation of GHD Digital. Today GHD

[00:03:13] Digital has more than 600 people we are in nine countries 86 offices and just last month we're

[00:03:21] being rated as a leader in our 200 billion global architecture engineering and construction industry.

[00:03:31] Prior to that prior to my entrepreneurial venture of TechnoWav I was KPMG for 15 years and again

[00:03:38] had the rare opportunity to become a founding member of the technology advisory business which is

[00:03:47] now a very large part of KPMG consulting business. Before that I was the public service

[00:03:55] as a CIO, so they have multiple roles in multiple organizations. Well it's a huge pleasure to

[00:04:04] have you on the podcast with me today and it's such a fast moving space right now especially with

[00:04:09] the evolving cyber threat landscape but I was reading just before you came on the podcast today about

[00:04:15] AI worms that have recently been announced and they don't even need an end users to help them spread

[00:04:22] as cyber threats continue to grow in sophistication particularly with the advent of AI I'd love for you

[00:04:28] to set the scene for our conversation today and give a bit of an overview of the current threat

[00:04:33] landscape as you see it especially around the critical infrastructure and why it's becoming a

[00:04:39] growing concern for both public and private sectors because it is something we're hearing more

[00:04:44] and more about now isn't it? Absolutely Neil and we would see in science fiction movies that is

[00:04:53] actually coming true and you know I'm a big proponent of digital transformation I spent the last

[00:05:02] the 1415 years helping organizations deal with digital disruption and as organizations become

[00:05:11] digitally more mature their risk of being

[00:05:18] vulnerable to cyber attacks also increases it was you know even 25 years back 20 years back it was

[00:05:26] unfathomable for most of us to think that critically infrastructure like the polls,

[00:05:32] dams, power stations, water plants they could be impacted by cyber attacks but the world is changing

[00:05:43] very very fast in the last five years we have seen an increase in geopolitical tension

[00:05:51] and ransomware attacks and these are all contributing to the cybersecurity challenge that we

[00:05:58] are seeing today and will continue to see in the coming years in our communities. Our research

[00:06:06] indicates digital has a favorite of research research indicates that more than half of the global

[00:06:14] critical infrastructure providers have been hacked and they have experienced attempts to control

[00:06:24] and shut down their systems leading to significant safety and cost implications as well as the

[00:06:32] risk of reputational damage. So attacks on critical infrastructure are a real thing

[00:06:40] and so most as we have identified 50% of the critical infrastructure providers experience these

[00:06:48] attacks the attacks on critical infrastructure are growing at 125% per annum now we have just

[00:06:57] between 20 22 and 2023 we have seen an increase of 2.5 times as far as the cyber attacks are concerned

[00:07:06] 2.5 times and about 9 in 10 critical infrastructure firms such as those involved in energy and electrical

[00:07:16] creates experience cyber attacks just last year in 2023 and over 50% of these firms could not

[00:07:24] block the initial attack as the technology advances the attacks surface expands creating a digital

[00:07:34] battlefield I would like to say where ridgillins collaboration innovation are paramount.

[00:07:42] You know I just want to take a couple of minutes to just explain what we would consider critical

[00:07:49] infrastructure. So big infrastructure includes energy and power plants including the power

[00:07:55] grids water and best water facilities transportation logistics and so on so forth transport systems

[00:08:05] critical infrastructure also includes communication, government services, so threat to national

[00:08:11] security and public and institutions emergency services nuclear facilities nuclear plants

[00:08:20] critical manufacturing banking and financial institutions and healthcare these are all in our

[00:08:26] view critical infrastructure sectors and again these are all experiencing significant threats

[00:08:34] just a few months back two municipal water facilities serving more than 2 million residents

[00:08:39] in parts of Pennsylvania and Texas reported network security breaches that amstrung parts of their

[00:08:47] business and these attacks served as a warning to all of us that critical infrastructure is

[00:08:55] increasingly becoming vulnerable to hacking and that could impact the lives of millions of people.

[00:09:03] In your country Neil we have had an incident with south south that's Daffordshire where a water

[00:09:10] facility was also hacked and it resulted in temporary disruption or more treatment

[00:09:16] processes said so this threat is real and it is increasing on a daily basis and I think we

[00:09:24] just need to be very aware that we need to be proactive to deal with it. And I guess the question has

[00:09:31] to be at a time where there's so much global conflict around the world what steps do you believe

[00:09:36] society and government should be taking to maybe fortify critical infrastructure against these

[00:09:42] emerging cyber threats and how does this balance between technological innovation and cybersecurity

[00:09:48] and cybersecurity risk management it just feel like a big balancing it.

[00:09:53] Yes it is a really big challenge and the good guys need to be always be ahead of the bad guys

[00:10:02] and especially when you're getting a huge amount of state funding into these kind of attacks

[00:10:13] by adversarial nations to keep funding countermeasures to protect your

[00:10:23] organizations could become a challenge. So for example let's let's let's first understand why

[00:10:30] this threat is now becoming serious I alluded to the fact that digital transformation,

[00:10:38] acceleration of digital transformation is making organizations more vulnerable to cyber attacks

[00:10:45] but also conversions of information technology and operating technology in the olden days

[00:10:54] you know the OT IT systems were separate and now they are integrated and as you know most of

[00:11:04] the infrastructure organizations have got industrial control systems such as Scata which is

[00:11:12] supervisory control data acquisition and programmable logic controllers POCs and they use them

[00:11:19] for monitoring processes and controlling physical devices. What is happening is with the IT OT

[00:11:26] integration which is information technology and operating technology integration now hackers are

[00:11:33] able to get into these Scata systems that are actually controlling physical devices such as

[00:11:43] pump small smoters sensors that you see in organizations. The convergence of IT OT is number one reason

[00:11:51] number two reason is rapid adoption of Internet of Things again IoT has increased and that is

[00:11:58] bringing in a huge risk just through the mere fact that there are a lot many interconnected devices

[00:12:05] now so a hacker can get into one device and then very easily go into others because they're all

[00:12:11] interconnected an industrial IoT in fact increases that risk further. You know evolving geopolitical

[00:12:19] landscape we already spoke about that we have legacy systems many organizations still have very

[00:12:28] very large number of legacy systems and it's a formidable challenge because they don't have the

[00:12:36] funds especially utilities like water utilities are funded by the taxpayers often don't have the

[00:12:46] funds to modernize their legacy systems and so legacy systems are becoming one of the key reasons

[00:12:53] for malicious actors to exploit weaknesses and then potentially create catastrophic issues.

[00:13:04] Of course resource can trip constraints to fiber securities increasingly becoming more

[00:13:11] and more self-assisticated you know about 10 years back I used to run a cyber practice of

[00:13:16] very large number of people about 2000 to help find people. The cyber practice is now completely

[00:13:23] transformed now we have new types of skills that are needed and there is a limited availability of

[00:13:31] skills as far as cyber is concerned so it's not the right reasons why this risk is exponentially

[00:13:39] increasing and a lot of directors and executive are awake but two reasons one they don't understand

[00:13:49] to even if they understand they sometimes feel helpless because because things are changing so fast.

[00:13:57] What should one do to protect our society? Well business is a very huge role there are very

[00:14:06] on part of the social fabric and they are also the reason for the prosperity of our society

[00:14:17] so I'll stop at the businesses and then we can look at other aspects as well so obviously

[00:14:23] better than executive ownership I see this happening to a very very large extent. Well recently I was

[00:14:28] at the national conference of NACD which is the association of company directors with United

[00:14:33] States in the United States and there's a huge amount of ownership as far as boards are concerned

[00:14:42] and of course have a very clear cyber strategy tied to business objectives and risk often

[00:14:50] when you are doing the sorts of things that you know people have been doing in cyber they can

[00:14:56] get complacent and they say hey cyber security is an old problem let's we're doing everything

[00:15:01] possible let's kind of consider that as BAU my business as usual the answer is no problem is

[00:15:09] there all that is protecting our assets and increased state of cyber security but the ways through

[00:15:17] which these attacks are happening out new they're changing on a daily basis so you know look like

[00:15:23] the cyber security strategy almost every year and make sure it's allying to the business outcomes

[00:15:30] get a very good understanding of the assets many of our clients and many of people who

[00:15:37] organizations that I work with they have they have these infrastructure facilities that are 50,

[00:15:43] 70, 100 years old and understanding their assets inside out is critical.

[00:15:51] Security by design is something that we use that means incorporating security measures from the

[00:15:57] outset very similar to safety by design it is what we are advocating now what the security by

[00:16:06] design does is that it minimizes vulnerabilities and reduces the likelihood of costly security breaches

[00:16:15] and yeah so those are some other things that organizations do society also has governments

[00:16:21] and I think governments need to be at the forefront of being on par are not are more to the states

[00:16:30] adversarial states that are rural states that are funding attacks governments need to get proactive

[00:16:36] funding cyber security remedial and protective actions and the third thing is government

[00:16:44] industry collaboration I believe it is absolutely critical because no one organization

[00:16:53] even no single government organization will be able to deal with this threat on its own so you need

[00:17:01] the innovation coming from the private sector the funding coming from the public sector to come together

[00:17:11] for the collective benefit of the society so again there is a lot of scope for improvement in

[00:17:17] this space but these are some of the rallies through which we can enhance the protective measures

[00:17:23] without the society protect our organizations protect our governments and increase collaboration

[00:17:32] and you mentioned enhancing protective measures and I'd love to learn a little bit more about

[00:17:36] how at GHD digital you're at the forefront of aiding companies in their digital transformation

[00:17:42] journeys and but people that are listening hearing about you for the first time they could be located

[00:17:47] anywhere in the world can you tell me a little bit more about how you're helping these companies

[00:17:51] that we're talking about embrace new technologies without amplifying their cyber misprofiles

[00:17:58] yes thank you and Neil do you actually believe that our main focus is to help in the

[00:18:07] just the key clients of GHD GHD as you may be aware is 11,000 people global organization in all parts of the world

[00:18:17] and many without clients are critical infrastructure providers so at GHD digital we believe that

[00:18:29] important are us to implement strategies which are more aligned to the principle of security by design

[00:18:39] and what that means is we are advocating they're developing and advocating a structured and adaptable

[00:18:47] approach cyber security through a cyber security operating model which is a framework

[00:18:53] which allows organizations to manage and mitigate evolving threats and by adding this

[00:19:02] framework into the business operating models of critical infrastructure companies

[00:19:12] we believe that they can better manage their cyber security profiles

[00:19:19] and deal with adverse situations when attacks happen I think one cannot imagine in this world

[00:19:30] that we will have a situation where no attacks are going to happen looking at the statistics

[00:19:35] one in every two critical infrastructure facilities have been attacked so helping ourselves need to be

[00:19:45] number one priority and the outframe which we call the cyber security operating model is expected to

[00:19:53] help and what it does is it provides a blueprint on how our security functions should operate in an

[00:20:02] organization embedding in every part every critical part of that organization reduces duplication

[00:20:11] of activities across organizational boundaries with increased role clarity because when things

[00:20:18] go wrong you need to have a little clarity on who is going to act and what they're going to do

[00:20:24] it helps reduce risks associated with delivering security services through

[00:20:30] process consistency and standardization and increases efficiency both in terms of time and cost

[00:20:38] when enacting changes during transformation so this is our solution if I can say so

[00:20:49] to help companies deal with emerging challenges we also have a very large number of partners

[00:20:57] that we work with and we intend to continue to build relationships that will allow our clients

[00:21:08] and our people to to be safe and of course AI is grabbing all the headlines at the moment forcing

[00:21:15] a rapid adaptation within the cyber security industry and I'm curious from what you're seeing

[00:21:20] this year in what ways is AI both a challenge and an opportunity for cyber security professionals

[00:21:27] especially in the context of protecting the critical infrastructure

[00:21:31] is now as you know growing again at an exponential pace we have seen that through the

[00:21:39] release of chat Gbt in November of 2022 and after that generative AI has just taken off in multiple ways

[00:21:49] and so you know AI advancements in AI and other technological advancements including

[00:21:57] industrial IoT and other things that represent a double H ward in the context of critical

[00:22:06] infrastructure security on one side they are really beneficial and the increased operational

[00:22:12] efficiencies and they enhance services to customers clients citizens on the other side they also

[00:22:20] expose occupations to huge risks and expand the attack surface providing cyber adversaries

[00:22:31] with new ways to exploit wonderful. Cyber security must evolve in tandem as new technologies are

[00:22:40] evolving and embracing innovations in AI for detection chain for secure transactions and

[00:22:49] robusting encryption techniques I'll say this again embracing innovations such as

[00:22:56] Fred detection, Lockchain for secure transactions and robust encryption techniques using AI

[00:23:06] and now become paramount to maintaining the delicate balance between technological progress

[00:23:11] and the resilience of our critical systems. Ultimately what I believe is the convergence

[00:23:17] of technology and cyber security will shape the future of our critical infrastructure determining

[00:23:23] our ability to defend against ever evolving digital threats and ensure continuity of wider services.

[00:23:32] So from an AI perspective and machine learning perspective that some benefits here AI can help

[00:23:38] identify stop private threats as they happen in real time by looking at huge amounts of data AI

[00:23:47] could quickly find unusual patterns that could be threats AI keeps getting smarter because

[00:23:54] generally AI gets keep the models keep on learning and in turn learning as they learn they can stop

[00:24:01] your kinds of attacks happening so that's this these models are already existing and I think

[00:24:08] you will see more and more of these models now being available to organizations for companies

[00:24:17] to protect their own assets. So I believe it's an area of active exploration for everyone

[00:24:30] who is operating in this space and I think the bolds and the executives should ensure that they're

[00:24:38] just simply not delegating this to their technology leaders or CIOs but taking a key in interest

[00:24:46] to one understand the advancements that are happening in the cyber security space and two

[00:24:55] how those advancements are being applied in the organizational context of their responsibility.

[00:25:03] I've gone other days when you know technology responsibilities are delegated through somebody

[00:25:10] down the chain today technology effective functioning of technology impacts organizations business

[00:25:19] so the success of technological systems and business systems are now integrated so I think it's

[00:25:27] a CIO and the board matter to look at these kind of things in deal with them. And it is such a balancing

[00:25:34] act because I think digital transformation is obviously imperative for growth and efficiency but

[00:25:40] on the other hand it also opens up new vectors for cyber threats. So how does GHD digital advice

[00:25:47] clients on navigating some of these risks while still leveraging that the rewards of digital

[00:25:52] innovation to? Yeah sure you're absolutely right you know we can't stop digital disruption so we are

[00:26:02] on this path of digital acceleration if we don't then the very existence of the organizations

[00:26:12] that we are part of is at risk. So really a GHD digital so just a few steps for everyone to stay

[00:26:23] ahead of this ever evolving cyber security threat situation the question for most is continuous

[00:26:31] monitoring and threat intelligence implementing advanced monitoring systems that provide real time

[00:26:37] visibility into network traffic and system behavior. So for example using intrusions detection

[00:26:46] systems that analyze network patterns can identify unusual activity so we strongly urge everyone

[00:26:54] to have continuous monitoring and threat intelligence systems in the corporate world.

[00:27:01] Have regular cybersecurity risk assessments external assessments and this would help

[00:27:09] identify wanderbilities and weaknesses in critical systems. You pay somebody to hack into your

[00:27:15] systems you know some organizations do the the high professional ethical hackers and they are part

[00:27:23] of their risk assessment. Reggie 50% of cyber risks are likely to be because of human error by

[00:27:34] 2025 this was one of the studies you know conducted recently so employ cleaning and awareness is

[00:27:42] critical cultivating a cyber aware culture within the organizations by training employees to recognize

[00:27:51] fishing at 10 cents social engineering aptics could be very very beneficial and again this is

[00:27:57] a very important area of all focus. And also embrace a defense in depth approach by layering

[00:28:07] security measures for instance robust access controls can restrict unauthorized access to

[00:28:14] critical systems by firewalls and filtering coming and out carrying traffic so and defense

[00:28:21] in depth strategy. Some of the other things which we suggest you know our clients should look at

[00:28:28] is public and private partnership including partnership with the line enforcement agencies you know

[00:28:35] writing United States to the FBI is very open to partnerships in terms of organizations wanting

[00:28:44] to protect themselves and protect their industries by enforcement agencies and other government

[00:28:50] agencies are prime candidates for partnership and sharing with a collective compliance so ISO 27

[00:28:59] NIST cybersecurity framework are two standards that come to my mind that one can comply with

[00:29:07] we already mentioned innovation and technology adoption so look at what else is happening in the

[00:29:14] broader ecosystem especially the startup ecosystem and explore if if those innovations are applicable

[00:29:22] to your organization to stay ahead of the game and last but not least elicate the right kind

[00:29:29] of funding and resources this this threat is never gone. I would also like to say that you know in

[00:29:38] the event a cyber attack which is highly likely and critical functions being impacted one should be

[00:29:47] very prepared to not only deal with the incident in a responsive manner and efficient manner

[00:29:57] but also have an adaptive risk management framework which allows you to adapt your risk

[00:30:06] profiles and risk mitigation as the situation evolves because there's no precedent of that kind

[00:30:15] of risk happening before so adaptive risk management frameworks could be could be very very

[00:30:21] beneficial so those are some of our suggestions and recommendations kneel to our clients

[00:30:29] and I do feel that there is plenty of scope to do lock more work in this space to stay ahead of

[00:30:37] ahead of the game. I think with the convergence of technology and cyber security continuing

[00:30:44] to shape the future and the future protection of critical infrastructure I'm curious what are

[00:30:49] the emerging trends that you foresee in the next five to ten years I appreciate that's a

[00:30:54] had a long time into the future especially with how much technological change has happened in

[00:30:59] the last two or three years alone so any trends you're seeing and any advice on what should

[00:31:06] what company should be preparing for. You know I think I think next five years we can't

[00:31:12] predict the next 20 years but the next five years there will be there is absolutely no doubt that

[00:31:21] the impact of AI in everything that we do will significantly increase.

[00:31:28] So the trends that we should be very aware of is a greater level of complexity being added

[00:31:37] in the cyber security protection environment by machines constantly attacking relentlessly

[00:31:46] attacking organizations and trying to find vulnerabilities 24 by 7 and becoming more and more

[00:31:53] more sophisticated and so so that is that trend will will happen. The other another friend is

[00:32:01] as I said no one organization will be able to protect themselves so partnerships to safeguard

[00:32:09] national interests and business interests will emerge and they will have military grade systems

[00:32:18] in place to protect all critical infrastructure. A grand is a lot of work that is needed to get there

[00:32:25] but those partnerships will become very very critical. I also see Neil that there will be an

[00:32:32] emergence of a range of organizations that will provide range of services from continuous

[00:32:40] monitoring and threating allegiance to cybersecurity assessments and employee training.

[00:32:46] The professional services in this space will increase because the demand for these services

[00:32:53] will increase. Collaboration between that nations will also increase because you don't need to

[00:33:00] now go to war with your tanks and guns and artillery. You can go to war sitting wherever you are

[00:33:08] and put all the economy and the business network of a nation through cyber attacks and again

[00:33:16] the level of sophistication which we are seeing it will only increase. So it's very important

[00:33:22] to be very important again to be aware that the new type of warfare is no longer in the old

[00:33:31] battlefields but right in our backyard where we operate our businesses and we lead our lives

[00:33:39] that's the battlefield from a cyber perspective that we need to fight. So there are some threats,

[00:33:45] there's some trends and the only way we can overcome this is through

[00:33:51] innovation, collaboration and ensuring that we understand the seriousness of them.

[00:33:58] Well it's been a huge pleasure to have you on the podcast with me today and before I'll let you go

[00:34:02] there is any advice that you would offer to any leaders listening anywhere in the world especially

[00:34:07] leaders in industries relying on critical infrastructure, on integrating cyber security into

[00:34:13] that strategic planning especially as they're increasingly beginning to adopt emerging technologies

[00:34:19] like AI. Any advice you would offer to those people? The drives I'd like to give to the leaders is

[00:34:25] that just be really aware of the real where you are infrastructure no matter how it has happened

[00:34:34] you ultimately hold the accountability no matter who is responsible, you are accountable

[00:34:43] for ensuring that it doesn't impact the lives of people. So from that perspective understand

[00:34:51] the real threat of the legacy landscape understand the real threat of interconnected system

[00:35:00] understand the regulatory and compliance requirements especially in you and financial services

[00:35:07] the regulatory compliance requirements play a huge role and if you don't comply of course

[00:35:11] you get hundreds and millions of dollars fines. Be very aware that industrial IoT and

[00:35:20] conversions of ITOT while increasing productivity and operational efficiencies are also exploring

[00:35:29] threats to your organization which you need to actively deal with and collaborate, collaborate,

[00:35:37] collaborate with whoever you can to protect your businesses, your people and your organizations.

[00:35:45] Fantastic advice I know another question I've got to ask you because I think it feels like

[00:35:49] all of us now we're in this state of continuous learning and there is so much going on the speed

[00:35:54] of changes is so quick right now how old were you self educated anything you could share

[00:36:00] with us. The evolution of knowledge in the world which we live is happening a lot faster than we

[00:36:12] can ever keep up with and especially in the businesses like the kind of global business that I run

[00:36:21] you know there are new models every day new ways of going to market new products and services new

[00:36:26] ways of engaging with clients new ways of solving client issues and very challenging for leaders

[00:36:34] to really comprehend it this huge change that is happening around us where the knowledge is

[00:36:41] evolving faster than we can keep up. Neil what I do is I read a fair bit I read about 10 to 12

[00:36:52] books a week on a speed reader so I read them try to get the essence I do seek situational knowledge

[00:37:01] and that means if I have to talk about cyber security and critical infrastructure in the water space

[00:37:06] I'll be talking to people who have been in that space at the forefront and spending half an hour

[00:37:13] 45 minutes an hour human interaction is always I found a lot more beneficial than you know just reading

[00:37:21] things that says the second thing guys things I do. The first thing I do is regularly practice self

[00:37:28] awareness and self awareness comes from the fact that determine what your role is in your particular

[00:37:34] job and determine the weaknesses in in performing that role which you need to improve and you know

[00:37:41] to be absolutely brutally honest if you you know and you can seek also feedback and I seek feedback

[00:37:50] from people who might trust and they give you feedback about things that you need to improve.

[00:37:55] Incruing leadership behaviors because the world is joining so fast you've got to improve your

[00:38:00] leadership behaviors as well and enhance your leadership behaviors as well and you know I have a

[00:38:06] very strong view that the leadership paradigms that we all grew up with today's organizations are

[00:38:13] run with they're all becoming vastly outdated so we need to become better leaders there are no

[00:38:19] paradigms yet defined of what that means and again we are going through that evolution process

[00:38:24] and again I have a very open mind to learning some of the subs I adopt a range of ways channels

[00:38:32] to keep myself learning all the time it's never enough and but you do your best.

[00:38:39] Love it and for anybody listening wanting to dig a little bit deeper on this subject or contact

[00:38:44] you or your team what's the best starting point for everything GHD?

[00:38:49] Yeah we are all right we're all going through our you know websites at ght.com or I'm available

[00:38:58] through my LinkedIn connections so people can reach out to me or LinkedIn if they want to

[00:39:05] connect with me and engage in a future dialogue.

[00:39:10] Well we've talked about so much in a short amount of talk today firmly

[00:39:13] steps that society and governments must take to protect critical infrastructure from cyber attacks

[00:39:20] how yourselves at GHD digital while helping companies with their digital transformation

[00:39:26] to embrace the latest technologies without creating greater risks and I know what a tough balance

[00:39:31] that is right now and also how AI is forcing the cyber security industry to adapt this is

[00:39:38] something that's going to continue to evolve so it'll be great to get you back on next year but more

[00:39:43] than just thank you for sharing all that and you're still really thanks again come thank you

[00:39:48] I think the insight shared about the challenges faced by critical infrastructure in an increasingly

[00:39:53] digitized world and the innovative solutions being implemented by GHD digital all collectively

[00:40:00] highlight the importance of proactive measures and the transformative potential of AI in security

[00:40:06] and the collaboration between public and private sectors the necessity of designing security into

[00:40:12] the fabric of our digital infrastructure combined with the future trends in cyber threats I think

[00:40:17] they all again underscore the need for continuous vigilance and innovation in this field and as we

[00:40:23] conclude today let's partner on how each of us as part of this interconnected digital ecosystem can

[00:40:31] maybe contribute to a more secure future and ask yourself what steps can you take within your

[00:40:36] sphere of influence to enhance cyber security please share your thoughts and join the conversation

[00:40:44] on safeguarding that digital frontier by emailing me tech blog writer outlook dot com twitter

[00:40:50] linked in instagram just at Neil CQ's but that's it for today so I'll be back again tomorrow with

[00:40:56] another guest on another topic but as you all know I mean this thank you Felicity hopefully

[00:41:01] you'll join me again tomorrow but until next time don't be a stranger