Security News > 2022 > June > Cisco EVP: We need to lift everyone above the cybersecurity poverty line

Establishing some level of cybersecurity measures across all organizations will soon reach human-rights issue status, according to Jeetu Patel, Cisco EVP for security and collaboration.

"It's our civic duty to ensure that everyone below the security poverty line has a level of safety, because it's gonna eventually get to be a human-rights issue," Patel told The Register, in an exclusive interview ahead of his RSA Conference keynote.

This idea of a cybersecurity poverty line - essentially were those below the poverty line don't have the budget or human resources to implement security measures - was coined by Cisco's head of advisory CISOs Wendy Nather during an earlier RSA Conference.

If we don't take care of the folks that are below the security poverty line, you can do all that you want to protect yourself if you're above the security poverty line, but you'll still be exposed.

"And if we don't take care of the folks that are below the security poverty line, you can do all that you want to protect yourself if you're above the security poverty line, but you'll still be exposed," Patel said.

Establishing security protocols across an organization requires a sufficient budget to buy products and employ security professionals with the capabilities to defend against threats.

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