Understanding Vital Threats of Cybersecurity with Eleanor Dallaway

Eleanor Dallaway is a tech journalist and editor for Infosecurity Magazine. Her stories have been published on websites like The Guardian and The Sunday Times. She has over a decade of experience in information security and spends her working days attending industry events, updating the website with the latest news, and interviewing industry experts. 

During her time off, you’ll find her socializing with her friends and/or reading a book. PureVPN sat down with Eleanor to discuss the emerging threats and issues faced in the cybersecurity ecosystem:

Question No 1: How did you get into the cybersecurity profession?

Eleanor: Get ready for the cliché…I fell into the cybersecurity by accident, or if I wanted to be more romantic, I’d call it serendipity…I studied English Language and Literature at Loughborough University and by my final year, had decided I wanted to be a journalist. I won a competition for an internship at Leicester Mercury newspaper and I was hired as Features Editor on the Loughborough University magazine. I was hooked on journalism. After graduation, I applied for one job and one job only: Assistant Editor of Infosecurity Magazine. I intended to get some real-world experience before moving into a ‘more glamorous’ industry. To my surprise, I fell in love with the industry, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Question No 2: What are some of the biggest cybersecurity challenges, especially for countries on the verge of multiple cyberattacks?

Eleanor: The simple and straight answer to this has to be ransomware.

Question No 3: Considering the growing number of cyberattacks, cybercriminals can take down companies like SolarWind! What’s your opinion on cybersecurity insurance?

Eleanor: The cyber-insurance industry is maturing and evolving very quickly. In the early days of cyber-insurance, organizations were using it simply to shift (rather than mitigate) risk. As cyber-insures have started to require organizations to demonstrate security practices, maturity and resilience in order to get insured, cyber-insurance has become a really positive force for good. People often focus only on the financial pay-out side of cyber-insurance, but there’s way more to it than that, it’s about helping organizations to recover after a cyber-incident. If you think about a ransomware incident, the financial reimbursement is only one part. More importantly, the cyber-insurance firm offers a cyber-incident response team to get an organization back on its feet and into a position of integrity.

Question No 4: Over time, cybercriminals have become more competent in triggering phishing attacks. Which is the best way to prevent phishing attacks at work or home? Should businesses start regular company-wide training?

Eleanor Dallaway: I’m a big advocate for motivational training – more carrot, less stick. I love the gamification of phishing detection  – it encourages vigilance and motivates employees to stay alert and report. I must add that I really don’t like insensitive phishing exercises – companies that have used emotive topics like the Russia-Ukraine conflict to try and trick users. There’s a line, and that’s crossing it.

Question No 5: How do you predict the future of cybersecurity?

Eleanor: If there’s one thing that’s certain about the future of cybersecurity, it’s uncertainty. Attackers will get smarter, cybersecurity defense and defenders will get smarter, artificial intelligence will evolve drastically but people will always be the heart, and the core, of the industry.

We admire your effort Eleanor for the interview. Our readers will benefit from your knowledge and insights. As for our readers, you can follow her on Twitter Eleanor Dallaway.