Intelligent CIO North America Issue 30 | Page 50

COUNTRY FOCUS : CANADA
Can you explain some of the cybersecurity issues The Well has been facing ?
When it comes to complex and highly connected real estate projects like The Well , the true challenge is to never let risks hinder innovation .
Cutting-edge technology is making infrastructure work for us in better ways than we could have ever imagined – but it also creates opportunity for risk . Smart devices ranging from elevators and thermostats to EV charging points and third-party vendors with access to building networks must be proactively managed for risk through technology . The technology must understand what ‘ normal ’ is , when a threat is made , and what actions are required to mitigate risk across these diverse infrastructures . At RioCan , security is our top priority and with Darktrace ’ s technology , our team is supported to ensure we can be everywhere all at once .
How sophisticated have these threats been ?
Sophistication isn ’ t always the issue – attackers today are trading off sophistication for automation and scale , which requires us to continuously raise the bar for both sophisticated threat actors and more every day , runof-the-mill attackers .
We implemented Darktrace AI to protect us from threats that often slip under the radar of traditional or legacy security tools : a compromised IoT device beaconing home or acting as a gateway into our network , automated or targeted ransomware , foreign equipment attempting to connect to our network or attackers trying to live off our land with low sophistication attacks like crypto-jacking . All of these threat vectors make up our risk profile and must be constantly monitored by an AI brain in the background .
Why are cybercriminals keen to get their hands on confidential data from real estate organizations ?
It is less about accessing confidential data as it is about the ability to control systems . With corporate networks being completely separate from building networks , valuable data is not readily accessible from building systems . Our corporate data is not at risk . However , comparing some building technologies and providers to those in the enterprise technology space , often there is a maturity gap .
George Ho , Vice President of Informational
Technology at RioCan
As a result , it ’ s important for us to have technology that intervenes automatically because it gives threat actors the opportunity to control systems and disrupt operations . In the face of these attacks , it ’ s about maintaining cyber stability and Business Continuity .
Why did RioCan decide to select Darktrace ' s DETECT and RESPOND technologies ?
At RioCan , security is a top priority . We selected Darktrace ’ s DETECT and RESPOND for our buildings so that we would have a centralized control panel for all cybersecurity incidents across both our corporate and building networks .
Cybersecurity teams do not lack to-do lists – we lack unified visibility over everything on our systems and the knowledge that autonomous action will be taken
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