Eugene Kaspersky presents his idea of an immunn IT in Vaduz
The Digital Summit Liechtenstein 2021 brought together the digital decision-makers of the Principality on October 19 – on site and virtually. The event is the flagship of the location initiative “Digital-Liechtenstein.li”, to which over 50 companies and organizations belong.
For the current edition, the fourth ever, the initiative brought top speakers to Vaduz. Among them Eugene Kaspersky, the founder and CEO of the Russian cybersecurity provider Kaspersky.
Cybersecurity is currently an important topic for Liechtenstein. For example, the initiative presented theirs a year ago digital roadmap to the government and to the Hereditary Prince Alois von und zu Liechtenstein. A clear focus of this roadmap is the topic of cybersecurity.
Nobody should be forgotten when it comes to digitization
The government itself is also active. The Principality is currently looking for its Mr. or Mrs. Cyber. A corresponding job advertisement for the management of the new “Cyber Security Office” was published in the summer. This job advertisement has meanwhile expired. However, it has not yet been decided who will take on the position.
Sabine Monauni, Minister of Economic Affairs of the Principality of Liechtenstein, gave the opening speech at the Digital Summit Liechtenstein 2021. (Source: screenshot)
“Successful digitization must bring about increased measures in the area of cybersecurity,” said Sabine Monauni, Minister of Economic Affairs of the Principality of Liechtenstein, at the opening speech. The new Cyber Security Unit is a step in this direction.
Raising awareness of the risks and dangers in cyberspace, however, has to start much earlier. In primary school, said Monauni. But: “The advantages of a digital society can only be fully exploited if they are accessible to the entire population without barriers.” This means that, in addition to promoting the young people’s digital skills, all other sections of the population are taken along on this journey.
The government agency made the infrastructure available. By 2022, for example, every house in the country should be connected to fiber optics. “Liechtenstein can therefore call itself the fastest country in the world,” said the Minister for Economic Affairs.
However, the responsibility for promoting digitization does not lie solely with the state. “Promoting digitization in everyday life and in every company is also up to every individual and every company itself,” said Monauni.
Kaspersky will immunize industry from cyberattacks
The way to this completely digitized world is currently made more difficult by three barriers, said Eugene Kaspersky in his keynote address. These barriers are: mass cyber crime, targeted cyber attacks (APTs) and attacks on industrial and critical infrastructures.
“We discover nearly 400,000 new, unique malware samples every day that we have never seen before,” said Kaspersky. Many of these malicious programs are created by automated systems. It wouldn’t surprise him either if there were only about 100,000 hackers behind it, said the CEO.
Eugene Kaspersky, founder and CEO of Kaspersky, spoke about cyber immunity in Vaduz. (Source: screenshot)
Cybersecurity cannot solve some problems. Because security is always about risk management. The risk of an attack can be assessed for heavy SMEs and also for certain large companies: How big is the (financial) loss if you are hacked? In the case of critical infrastructures, however, the possible damage is unpredictable. Cybersecurity cannot compensate for this risk either. “So it’s time to talk about cyber immunity,” said Kaspersky.
A new OS for immune systems
When is something immune? For Kaspersky, a system is immune if the cost of a cyberattack is greater than the potential damage it could cause. An idea that he already talked about at the Swiss Cyber Security Days 2019. Read more about the premiere of the SCSD here. At that time, however, Kaspersky did not have what the founder presented in Liechtenstein: a solution.
The Russian cybersecurity seller is selling the KasperskyOS operating system for this purpose. It is specifically intended for industrial applications – it is also not intended to replace Windows, as Kaspersky said.
With KasperskyOS, Kaspersky promises an immune operating system. (Source: screenshot)
The micro-kernel architecture has a security layer that isolates all modules. In addition, each module can only access the functions for which it is authorized. “That makes it a bit more difficult to develop applications for it,” said Kaspersky. Because you have to observe all of these powers. A previous system cannot simply be migrated to it 1: 1. “But it’s immune to that,” said the CEO.
Data alone is of no use
To conclude the event, Catrin Hinkel came on stage. She took over the management of Microsoft Switzerland at the end of May. In Vaduz she made her first public appearance as country manager of the Swiss national organization. It was also her “first big trip abroad,” joked Hinkel.
Catrin Hinkel took over the management of Microsoft Switzerland at the end of May. (Source: screenshot)
In her speech, Hinkel dealt less with cybersecurity and more with data-based value creation. By 2025, the global data volume will grow to 175 zetabytes, she quoted an IDC study. That’s 175 trillion – so 175,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 gigabytes.
However, these data alone are of no use. “You also have to have the computing power to be able to draw intelligent conclusions,” said Hinkel. The cloud is a valuable tool for this. Because in this way you can bring the required computing power to where it is needed – and also in a scalable form.
“So far we have been working on the digitization of the existing,” said Hinkel. Now it is a matter of developing new business models for this new, digitized world.
The event was again moderated by the entrepreneur Sunnie Groeneveld. (Source: screenshot)