As a vendor, Tripwire gets asked a lot of questions from customers and potential clients about how developments in the wider world might affect digital security. One of those forces that’s on everyone’s mind is Brexit. Representatives from some of our potential customers as well as our existing clients are asking us what to focus on and what to do. Specifically, they’re wondering how Brexit will affect their digital security efforts in general. That’s especially the case if they’re based in the United Kingdom.

To be honest, it’s tough to answer the question of how Brexit will affect UK organizations’ digital security. That’s because there are a lot of variables at play. Let’s look at this in more detail over the next few paragraphs.

A Possible Plus for UK Companies’ Digital Security Post-Brexit

On the one hand, Brexit could make digital security easier for some UK companies that are coming out of the European Union. That’s because leaving the European Union will free these organizations from necessarily needing to trust web traffic from certain countries over others. Think about it. When these organizations are situated within the European Union, digital attackers can reach them not necessarily by breaching their systems directly but instead going after smaller targets.

As an example, a threat actor group sets its sights on a UK organization. It might then decide to go after small German companies that otherwise have nothing to do with their true target but, nevertheless, lack robust security measures. (This is NOT a supply chain attack, so the companies don’t need to be in the same industry or work with the intended target directly.) From there, the bad actors come through those German companies to target the UK organization. They could very well succeed in their efforts, for as it’s situated (Read more...)