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Almost a third (31%) feel that the general public and consumers have most to gain from a greater sharing of ideas, resources and intelligence. This was followed by businesses (28%), their customers or end users (20%), and government and trade bodies (21%).

Lack of cooperation was cited by almost a third (32%) of respondents as the main barrier to collaboration, followed by insufficient support from leadership teams (25%), lack of visibility (25%), and the inability to share information in real time (18%).

Nicole Mills, Exhibition Director at Infosecurity Group, says: “There’s a clear appreciation that greater collaboration within cybersecurity will bring major advantages – for society as a whole, not only the organisations involved. It’s vital that we take action as an industry to overcome any barriers that might be stifling this; for example, a lack of opportunities to work together, or concerns over confidentiality. This must involve building an environment of trust and transparency where we can exchange knowledge, resources and ideas to combat security threats while protecting commercial sensitivities. By doing so we’ll improve detection and response capability, and visibility, and avoid reinventing the wheel.”

The designated theme of the Infosecurity Europe 2022 event is Stronger Together, with the intention of encouraging and enabling industry members – from businesses and individuals to government bodies and regulators – to come together and discuss the issues and challenges they are facing, and share experiences, information and solutions.

Infosecurity Europe also asked some of the speakers who are lined up to present on the Keynote Stage about the significance of collaboration – and the obstacles that might prevent it.

If everyone plays their individual part, there’s a “collective benefit to the collective defence”, according to Nitin Natarajan, Deputy Director, CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency). “Collaboration really is a force multiplier,” he explains. “We’re all looking at a common goal of tackling a very robust, dynamic, well-resourced adversary. We all have a different vantage point, a different role to play, and different tools in our toolbox to tackle the threat, so each of us contributes in our own unique way. As we do so, we create a fabric of security that makes it much harder for the adversary to attack.

“We also need to address fears around increased information sharing with people we’ve never worked with before, and build the trust and foundation needed around the protection of that information. This involves investing the time upfront to demonstrate and be transparent in how data and information are going to be utilised. Receiving something back in return for the information provided is also important.”

“There’s a lot of benefits to people getting together and sharing their knowledge, as many of the big cybersecurity challenges affect absolutely everybody,” says Keith Martin, Professor of Information Security at Royal Holloway, University of London. “Coming from a university environment we very much understand the need, because research in cybersecurity and other topics is very collaborative. But I also understand that people don’t want to talk about things that are very sensitive to their own organisations with competitors, even though there might be benefits from having such discussions. This means sometimes there are barriers to collaboration simply because of the markets and the need to survive. However security is an area where everyone benefits from collaboration, so anything we can do to facilitate that is a good thing.”

This year’s Infosecurity Europe exhibition and conference will run from Tuesday 21 to Thursday 23 June 2022, at ExCeL London. The conference programme will extensively explore a number of topics that underpin effective cooperation and collaboration – in particular on the Keynote Stage. These include:

Tackling the risk of insider threats and sophisticated malware attacks
Securing critical industrial control environments
Building a strong security-awareness culture
Crisis leadership and threat intelligence excellence
Mitigating the risks of a remote workforce
Enhancing the incident response strategy to minimise reputational risks
Diversity and inclusion in the information and cybersecurity workforce.

Attracting 2,543 responses, the Infosecurity Europe Twitter poll was conducted during the week of 24 January 2022.