"Anti-virus and anti-malware applications are vital components of any cybersecurity strategy, but they are not a complete answer,” he says. “Anti-virus software works by building up massive databases of known malware and protecting against them— it cannot detect new threats, the so-called ‘zero-day attacks’.

“And what about targeted attacks, aimed at a specific company or even individual, which typically rely on sophisticated social engineering to gain network access? These types of attack target humans rather than operating systems, and they are on the rise. They are particularly associated with ransomware extortion—as we have seen, they can be extremely damaging in all sorts of ways.”