Our latest podcast guest has a different mentality. Jörg Peine-Paulsen is one of the people who take cybersecurity extremely seriously. As a graduate in communications engineering, his main role is as a member of the Lower Saxony Office for the Protection of the Constitution – so security is part of his job. He is also a visiting university lecturer, dealing with topics including risk management, big data, and – very importantly – IT security.
Cybersecurity: Reports of cyberattacks are a common daily occurrence
The events of the first few weeks in March shocked the West. The war in Ukraine has been a brutal demonstration of the fragility of our security – not only on a physical level, but also in terms of our data and digital infrastructures. Reports of cyberattacks are a common daily occurrence.
“Spies do things that are always ultimately efficient, and they don’t necessarily have to be IT attacks.”
But not all cyberattacks are the same. Depending on what the attackers want to achieve, they might choose cybercriminality, sabotage, or espionage. While criminals use what Peine-Paulsen describes as a scattergun approach, spies are extremely subtle and highly efficient.
Cybersecurity and social engineering: The human security factor
These days, we are hearing more and more about social engineering, social scoring, and human hacking in relation to cybersecurity. All three have people in common, a factor that plays a significant role in Internet security. So significant, in fact, that people are actually referred to as a security vulnerability. Peine-Paulsen explains these terms in the podcast, and discusses how people can actively help boost security.
“Criminals simply want money; as fast and as much as possible. And spies will spend a lot of money in some circumstances, just to get hold of one single piece of information. But information that is relatively important.”
In an interesting and informative discussion with our host Alex Wunschel, Peine-Paulsen also covers the following questions:
- What are the fundamental dangers of the Internet?
- What are classic cybercrime techniques and strategies?
- What is the difference between cybercriminality, sabotage, and espionage?
- What’s behind the terms ‘social engineering’ and ‘human hacking’?
- What specific steps can companies take to protect themselves?
We hope you enjoy this enlightening podcast!
