Channel Island Businesses as Vulnerable to Cyber Threats as Multinationals
C5 Alliance Guernsey recently attended Cisco live, the technology industry’s premier education and training event for the IT, networking, and communications sector.
Run by the multinational technology company based in Silicon Valley, Cisco Systems – known commonly as Cisco, this year’s event was held in Berlin.
Matt Ferbrache, Head of Technical Solutions at C5 Alliance Guernsey, who attended the event alongside thousands of IT professionals, commented that it was no surprise that a key focus was the latest advanced cyber threat mitigation techniques – a space in which C5 continues to be very active.
During the event, Mr Ferbrache was invited to attend a private party for the Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) and was therefore able to exchange ideas and experiences with likeminded solution architects from around the world.
“This event was an opportunity to understand the latest capabilities from Cisco and meet the engineers who are responsible for both the design of today’s products, and the standards that will appear in the next two to three years. What remains clear is that Channel Island businesses require the same level of threat defences as multinationals, but they do not have the same level of budget or personnel to monitor and maintain the systems – this is an ongoing challenge for cyber security solutions locally and if not addressed could leave the door open to threats,” said Mr Ferbrache.
“We are committed to providing enterprise grade protection at an achievable level for Channel Island businesses, participating in global events like this allows us to benchmark our work alongside other industry professionals – from a lottery provider consolidating over 40 data centres, to how a Kazakhstan internet service provider is deploying high speed internet. This collaboration is invaluable and, barring scale, assists us in validating the solutions we are installing in the Channel Islands are as effective as other jurisdictions throughout Europe,” said Mr Ferbrache.