Cyber resilience is the ability of an organization to understand cyber threats, manage known risks, implement proportionate protections, and recover quickly from attacks. As critical infrastructure becomes more networked, attacks could seriously impact society. Infrastructure like utilities and transportation systems face threats from organized crime and state-sponsored attacks. The future of cybersecurity is uncertain as technology rapidly advances, but issues like converged networks, new technologies, easier attacks, mobile devices, and quantum computing will impact security.

1. Cyber resilience
Cyber resilience is the ability of an organisation to understand the
cyber threats it’s facing, to inform the known risks, put in place
proportionate protection, and to recover quickly from attack.
Cyber attacks
As the nation’s critical national
infrastructure becomes increasingly
networked the impact of an attack
on society becomes far more serious.
Infrastructure including utilities, power
networks, public transport, nuclear power
plants and defence facilities all face attack.
Network
compromise and
legacy systems
People Organised and
state-sponsored
cyber crime
Organised and
state-sponsored
cyber crime
The rapid
advance of
technology,
especially
convergence
Shortage of
skills required
for cyber
defence
Currently Future
2 2
1 1
3 3
What are the main concerns of cyber professionals?
*Research
conducted
by Atkins
October 2016
The future of cyber resilience
Technology is advancing all the time, so we cannot predict the
future, however we can imagine some key themes we should expect
• Corporate and industrial control networks
will continue to converge – benefits need to
be balanced against risks.
• Technology will shift – the technology in
10 years is likely to be completely different
from today. What is designed today is likely
to be obsolete in a decade.
• Access to cheap, ubiquitous technology will
make attack attempts increasingly easy
• Widespread mobile and wearable
technologies will make it nearly impossible
to set up strong geographical security
boundaries
• Quantum computing will compromise the
robust security currently offered by Public
Key Infrastructure (PKI) encryption.
Aligning security
to business goals
Using common
cyber language
Building physical
defences
Identifying key
assets and their
criticality
Planning for incidents
and crises
Increasing
cyber awareness
Identifying
threats
Securing industrial
networks
Educating employees
and suppliers
If you would like to find out about Atkins’ work in
cyber security please visit atkinsglobal.com/cyber
Human factors in cyber security
Accidental loss of
data/equipment
Use of open networks
Lack of awareness
Deliberate malice
Shortage of skilled resource
Acessing data on non-secure
personal devices
Perception of where the
advantage lies between
cyber attacker and
defender
Attacker
70%
Balanced
13%
Defender
17%
How to be cyber resilient