CHEAT’ Sheet : How Williams protects its data

Rounding a hairpin turn, the Formula One Racing Car driver has only a split-second to decide what maneuver to make next, relying on a mass of confidential information.

Data and technology are critical to making winning Formula One race-day decisions, and ensuring their cyber-security in such a high-stakes environment is no easy task, which is one of the reasons why the Williams Martini Racing team turned to Thales for help.

They understand how to use technology to make cars go faster, but they realized that they needed expert advice to make sure that they could trust their technology not to give up its secrets, says Alex Tarter, chief cyber consultant at Thales.

This was also a special concern for the Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE) division.  WAE develops world class technical innovation based on internal and customer provided intellectual property. Protecting such sensitive trade secrets is critical to the company’s reputational and competitive position.

Using tools such as the “Cyber Human Error Assessment Tool” or “CHEAT”, the Thales team identified technical and human-related cyber-vulnerabilities, that could be used to facilitate a cyber-attack. “We are experts on understanding how humans interact with technology,” Tarter says. As one example, they deployed a phishing email campaign to raise awareness of cyber security among employees.

The goal of CHEAT and other Thales tools, Tarter says, is to “build the cyber maturity of our customers, to solve a problem, to encourage trust in their technology and get them ready for the next round of digital transformation.”.