Sophos bemoans lack of talent in the IT security space

Ciaran Rafferty, head of Sophos for northern EMEA, does not come from a security background. However, after years in charge of spearheading SAP's SME UK sales push and senior management positions at HP, Compaq and Dunn & Bradstreet, he's no stranger to pressure, something which doubtless comes in handy at one of the UK's few home grown tech success stories.

Like many of its rivals in the super competitive corporate security space, Sophos was founded on the back of some well-engineered technology, although it's a constant battle to compete with the likes of Symantec and McAfee, and stay one step ahead of the cyber criminals, Rafferty admits.

"They're well funded and they're distributed. You rarely know where they are and what jurisdiction they're in - this is the problem that the likes of Soca and the Met police face too," he explains.

"Over the next few years, though, we're likely to see a lot more of the international pieces come together to help in this."

The government finally seems to be taking cyber security a bit more seriously, acknowledging that the ‘cyber threat' today is comparable or greater than the traditional threats facing the country via land, sea or air.

The £650m in funding handed to security minister Pauline Neville-Jones at a time of economic cutbacks was key, he says, but at times it has been hard work getting the message through to government.

"We went into the Cabinet Office and said: 'Do you know we're the largest privately owned security company in the world and we're British? Why are we not integral to your cyber crime strategy?'," Rafferty reveals.

"However, it's not just one vendor that should be involved in education; the whole industry needs to educate the market and encourage new talent into it."

This drive towards investing in the future and bringing talent into the woefully underserved information security space led to Sophos' involvement in the recent government-sponsored UK Cyber Security Challenge, a series of national online games and competitions designed to test the cyber security abilities of individuals and teams.