Cybercriminals continue to wreak havoc to organisations in all industries around the world. They range from state-sponsored cybercriminals to just normal hackers hacking for fun at home. But the problems caused by cybercriminals can have a huge impact on any organisation. Missing data, stolen information and reputations of companies are on the line whenever they encounter a cyber threat.

While cybersecurity providers continue to come up with methods and solutions to protect organisations, many still wonder why criminals do what they do. Is it because of the lucrative monetary gains they get from hacking or is it just because they are trying to make a point? For example, a hacker would want to send malicious content to a shopping website just because he was unhappy with the service he received from that company.

Monetary gains are normally the main reason for cybercrime. Curbing state-sponsored hackers may be still a bit of a challenge as most of them are more interested in espionage instead of monetary gains. But, for small-time cybercriminals, their aim is normally just to disrupt business flows and mess up organisations, while compromising data at the same time. 

Which is why understanding the mind of a cybercriminal has always been a problem many are trying to understand.

Today, cybersecurity teams in companies and governments across countries like Australia, US and UK are increasingly investing in hiring psychologists and criminologists to “get inside the heads” of cybercriminals. Profiling cyber attackers are becoming regarded as a critical element of any business’s strategy in safeguarding data and maintaining data privacy.

By understanding the criminal mind, companies and governments are able to predict which areas of an organisation are vulnerable to a cyber attack and act to reduce the risk. This proactive approach to cybersecurity is now a growing trend in most major countries. Malaysian business can benefit from understanding what other countries are doing to build upon existing skills to profile attackers and take action.

In light of this, CyberSecurity Asean is organising a discussion with peers and counterparts to discuss strategies to get “in the heads” of Cyber Attackers and better protect the organisation’s data privacy. A group of High-level Security Peers will explore how a cybercriminal thinks and plans their attack, and why having this insight is crucial to protecting business and meeting data privacy compliance.

CyberSecurityAsean.com Group Publisher Andrew Martin will share what other countries around the world are doing in this area together with an Ethical Hacker who will describe how they get in the head of an attacker. IBM’s Glen McFarlane and Sunil Prabhakaran will explain why guidelines such as Personal Data Protection Code of Practice are compelling organisations in all industries to carefully review their information security and governance programs to protect customer information, intellectual property and other critical enterprise data.