Thank you for attending Cyber IV

Cyber IV: More Than Just a Cyber Event

A huge thank you to everyone who joined us for Cyber IV.

From the moment guests arrived, we knew we were at the beginning of a great night. It was fantastic to see so many familiar faces, plenty of new ones and a room full of people ready to get involved.

Cyber IV, like all of our events, was about much more than cyber security. While cyber security was the reason we were all in the room, the evening focused on real experiences, practical advice and open discussion rather than technical jargon and complicated slides.

A Powerful Story from Paul Abbott

One of the highlights of the evening was hearing from our guest speaker, Paul Abbott, former Director of Knights of Old.

There are plenty of people who can tell you how to prevent a cyber attack.

Far fewer can tell you what it feels like when prevention fails.

Paul shared the story of the cyber attack that ultimately led to the collapse of the business, giving a first-hand account of what happened before, during and after the attack.

One of the reasons Paul’s story resonated so strongly with the audience is because it’s incredibly rare to hear from someone who has actually lived through it.

Most people hear about cyber attacks after the event. They read a news article, watch a webinar or hear statistics about another organisation that has been affected.

Very rarely do you get the opportunity to hear directly from someone who has experienced it first-hand, lived through the aftermath and come out the other side able to talk openly about what really happens when a ransomware attack hits.

What happens when staff can’t work.

What happens when customers start asking questions.

What happens when the screens suddenly go black and a ransom demand appears.

To bring that reality even closer to home, every table was provided with a copy of the actual ransom demand displayed during the attack on Knights of Old.

How often do you get the opportunity to see the real message that appeared on a company’s screen during a cyber attack?

For many people in the room, it turned a cyber threat from something theoretical into something very real.

Open Questions and Practical Advice

Following Paul’s presentation, our Head of Engineering, Dan, brought the discussion back to what organisations can do today to better protect themselves.

Guests had the opportunity to ask whatever they wanted. There was no red tape.

Questions ranged from Paul’s experience of the attack and what he would do differently if faced with the same situation again, through to how their IT provider at the time had, or hadn’t, supported them when it mattered most.

It highlighted the importance of having a strong MSP in place and never being afraid to ask questions of your provider.

Guests were also able to put technical questions directly to Dan, discuss different scenarios and hear the advice we would give based on our experience of supporting businesses every day.

The session also included practical guidance on how organisations can better prepare, protect themselves and where Smart Solutions can step in to support and offer advice.