The threat landscape facing Norway and Norwegian institutions and organizations has changed drastically in recent years. While we could previously handle threats to our operations in "silos," the current threat landscape demands a holistic approach across all security domains, as well as in contingency planning and crisis management.
This concept stems from a presentation given by Igor Kotsiuba (Assistant Professor at Durham University Business School and Chairman of the Cybersecurity Cluster of Ukraine) at the NSM Security Conference; he described how a hybrid threat landscape requires a different, holistic approach to ensure the continuity of goods and services production.
It is problematic that so many organizations have security functions distributed across different reporting lines—and, crucially, that these functions are often poorly integrated with the organization's contingency and crisis management plans.
This fragmentation creates a risk of sub-optimization, where individual functions lose sight of the organization's true objective: maintaining or restoring production. When this is combined with a highly complex threat landscape, where an attacker employs tools that engage different parts of the security and emergency preparedness organization, it becomes difficult to grasp the full scope of the incident.
Without this comprehensive overview, providing sound advice to management on crisis management becomes equally challenging. Modern hybrid attacks incorporate elements of cyber operations, information influence, sabotage, and, not least, the "trusted insider" threat; our organizations must be capable of viewing this entire picture holistically.
Without such a comprehensive overview, we would provide management with incorrect advice regarding preventive measures, fail to identify the right indicators of an attack, and be unable to offer the appropriate guidance to maintain service delivery.
What does this mean for the organization of security and emergency preparedness?
Brief introduction of the speaker
Torkel Thune is the Chief Security Officer (CSO) at Oslo University Hospital (OUS) and is also responsible for technology-related emergency planning and crisis management. Torkel has over 30 years of experience in IT and security, spanning the private sector in Norway and abroad as well as Norwegian public sector organizations; he has spent the last 17 years at Oslo University Hospital.
He has led several major cybersecurity operations and managed actual incidents both nationally and internationally. His educational background includes the Cavalry NCO School, the Royal Norwegian Naval Academy, an MBA program at the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH), and the National Executive Leadership Program for the specialist health service.
