University of Exeter Chief Information and Digital Officer Alan Hill video interview - Wargaming cyber security operations

Editor, CIO |

University of Exeter Chief Information and Digital Officer Alan Hill discussed Wargaming Cyber Security operations, protecting your assets and preparing for breaches in a video interview at the 2019 CIO Summit.

Recognised with his team in the 2019 CIO 100, Brigadier Hill was speaking with Scott Carey ahead of his 2019 CIO Summit presentation at the Langham Hotel in London.

[2019 CIO Summit photos and highlights]

Hill, the former Head of Information Superiority at the British Army, said that the higher education sector and other industries could learn from military practices in their approaches to cyber.

Wargaming Cybersecurity

"I'm using the phrase War Gaming, which is a military phrase, but actually it's a really good methodology for approaching how you think about what might go wrong, how you revise your plans and then how you react when the worst case situation happens," Hill said.

Poor cyber practices could potentially lead to serious disruption at universities, Hill said, and his presentation also discussed how even organisations with limited resources could improve their cyber defences

"Security is always a threat," he said. "We're seeing a lot more attacks on higher education, and we've got to be ready to respond to that while keeping business as usual, and not allowing these things to interrupt either the critical research activity or the education process for our students."

CIO perspectives

Hill added that there was much to learn from other CIOs beyond your own specific sector, and that as such events like the 2019 CIO Summit provided a useful platform.

"The different perspectives that come from the other sectors are really helpful," he said. "And I think bringing in those ideas into the higher education sector, it's a really important intelligence gathering operation.

"It enhances what we do in the university as we learn about what's going on in health or in the energy sector, or indeed any other sector at all."

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Edward Qualtrough is the Editor of CIO UK and has a particular interest covering digital strategy, leadership, enterprise culture, and diversity.

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