A large group of Company Officers, invited guests, Liverymen, Freemen, Members and Apprentices assembled at the Army and Navy Club in Pall Mall on the evening of Wednesday 26^th April for the 2023 Annual Lord Imbert Security Lecture sponsored by FACT.

The 2023 Lecture, Navigating Complexity in Security, was delivered by Professor Alison Wakefield PhD CSyP FSyl Co-Director Cybersecurity and Criminology Centre, University of West London.

Professor Wakefield’s theme was that “Complexity“ runs through the ideas and developments of the 4^th Industrial Revolution, such as with robotics and 3D printers.

Five themes were highlighted, the global challenge, fragmentation, disequilibrium, greater concentration, adaptation as the drivers of Cyber Security Risk and complexity thinking.

There was the recognition that Governments can’t do everything so you have to develop the concept of resilience. However, the architecture was developed at a different time when there were different risks before the current issues were thought of. Similarly, the current management structure of organisations is not always suited to the new complex issues that it is required to address.

The challenges include transparency. How do you get openness when commercial organisations are focused on short term reward. This also puts pressure on the amount of testing and examination organisations undertake. If you can achieve some openness, the transparency will build trust, which will allow risk to be addressed and hopefully managed out of the organisation.

The human issues were also covered and the pressures caused by a lack of qualified workers in the data science sector and the fact that the insider risk was not just a matter of background checks but also the ongoing insider risk.

This highlights the challenge and conflict between long term planning and investment against the pressure on Corporations to deliver returns in the short term.

Professor Wakefield having set the scene and raised a number of thought-provoking issues then took questions from the floor on a wide range of issues arising from her presentation.

The Worshipful Company of Security Professionals are most grateful to Professor Wakefield for delivering such a thought provoking 2023 Annual Security Lecture which was enjoyed by all of those present who warmly thanked Professor Wakefield.