SPONSOR INTERVIEW: Did APT1 put "cyber" on the boardroom agenda?

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In this sponsor interview we're chatting with Declan Ingram of Datacom TSS.

Datacom TSS is a Canberra-based, national security firm founded by ex Australian government security specialists. These guys specialise in dealing with highly skilled adversaries... Now, when they founded this business a few years ago, there was awareness in government that highly skilled adversaries were a real challenge... but it's really been 2013 where executives at the boardroom level have sat up and taken note of security issues, particularly the issue of APT.

They've realised it isn't just the Google's of the world who are being attacked by state sponsored adversaries -- Oil companies, broadcasters and insurance companies have been absolutely nailed by teams working for the governments of North Korea and Iran, for example.

Furthermore, Mandiant's APT1 report really put the issue on the map for a lot of people who previously just weren't aware of the issues. It's that whole chicken versus egg thing -- are people becoming aware of it because of the media attention or is the media reporting on it because people are becoming aware?

So how has this affected things for a business like Datacom TSS? Declan Ingram joined me to discuss. I started off by asking him how perceptions of sophisticated threats have changed over the last couple of years.