Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Let me first say a sincere thank you to the organisers of this event, the Sunday Business Post and IQuest for their kind invitation to open 2006’s IT and eSecurity Summit.
It is reassuring to see, in a summit such as this; the importance placed on protecting our information infrastructures.
Our economy is becoming increasingly dependent on information communications technology (ICT). The ICT sector in this country is fast growing, research intensive and innovative.
As we migrate towards a ubiquitous information society, people will be connected with everything, whenever they want and wherever they go. This creates many opportunities and challenges. If such a society is to succeed, users need to have confidence and trust in ICT. Information security is a key challenge to the delivery of the truly converged information society. It is imperative that everybody is aware of existing and new threats and how to deal with these challenges.
Where information security incidents were once highlighted by mass attacks on computer systems and networks, new more sinister attacks on information systems have become commonplace.
New cyber criminals are now more interested in gaining access to confidential information and using this information for illegal financial gain. Fraudwatch International put the number of phishing sites on the internet to 69,081 at the end of October of this year.
We are all computer owners and users. With the huge roll out of broadband we have networks that are always connected with ever increasing connection speeds and computers that can process information faster.
Protection requires a collaborative effort and a cooperative approach by all computer users. The need for continuous education and vigilance is a prerequisite. This conference is an important part of that process.
The latest statistics show that a computer connected to the internet is attacked every 15 minutes. Public information campaigns on information security have been important in educating the public. However, new threats are now commonplace. Spyware and phishing attacks are not unusual. Such attacks illustrate that information security is not only about installing the latest anti virus software but about taking care on how we use our computers. According to MessageLabs 1 in every 170 emails sent in September was an attempted phishing attack.
The dangers from unsolicited emails, absence of passwords, downloading free software from unknown sites, the provision of information in response to unexpected requests and so on, needs to be monitored.
Information security is a package which requires the development and adoption of best practices and the cooperation of all stakeholders.
Ireland has long been known as a leading producer of software. We have a strong culture of being innovative and thinking outside the box. It was with good reason that one of the leading ICT companies once based their recruitment campaign on the slogan “ The Irish have a history of being the best writers”.
The information security industry is one of the areas where some of the smaller Irish companies have an opportunity to develop niche software solutions. We are fortunate to have some of the leading ICT companies located in Ireland, with a critical mass of human capital with expertise in the area of information security.
I would hope, that conferences such as these, provide not only an opportunity for you to learn, but also provide an opportunity where Irish entrepreneurs can work together to build solutions in the information security area that can be marketed to a world wide market.
It has been predicted that Ireland’s future economic prosperity will be built on SME industries that provide added value services and I hope that this conference will provide an opportunity to explore these possibilities and to generate the wealth of the future.
I thank you for this opportunity to address you and wish you an engaging, challenging and enjoyable IT and eSecurity conference.
Thank you.