CDM-CYBER-DEFENSE-eMAGAZINE-March-2019

Rip Off the Band-Aid
This leaves us with thousands of vendors selling security solutions and companies spending
record amounts on cybersecurity initiatives yet still grappling with identification and remediation
of threats and attacks. This would be easier to wave off if attacks were slowing down, but they
are not. This year, 46% of U.S. organizations have already experienced a data breach, which is
nearly double (24%) what it was in 2017. Attacks continue to accelerate at an unprecedented
rate. In fact, Cybersecurity Ventures predicts that by the end of 2019, a ransomware attack will
occur every 14 seconds, which is staggering when you consider that in 2016, the average was
every two minutes (still pretty bad).
I could throw scary stats out all day long to demonstrate the gravity of the situation, but one fact
is clear: What we are currently doing is not working—despite all of the money and technology
being thrown at cyberattack problems. Instead of slapping on a Band-Aid, we need to change the
entire way we think about cybersecurity. The fact of the matter is that threats are changing so fast
in form and function that companies can’t keep up today. Not only are the nature of attacks
persistently evolving faster than enterprises can adjust, but the sheer volume of attacks leaves
companies panicked and underprepared.
Developing Your Cyber Defense Force
The ever-changing security threat landscape has become the number one concern for endpoint
security buyers according to Gartner. In this year’s Third Annual Study on the Cyber Resilient
Organization, 77% of IT professionals reported that their companies do not have a formal
cybersecurity response plan. This must change.
Organizations have to accept that attacks will happen, that despite all of their great defenses,
issues are bound to slip through. The expectation that something will infiltrate the network,
infrastructure, or an employee device must become the norm, and they need to train for what
happens when it does. Think of your SecOps team as your very own special forces of sorts,
constantly vigilant, set to defend, and ready to respond creatively and rapidly in the event of an
attack.
To make identification and remediation of security vulnerabilities and issues as simple as
possible, there are three key areas that must be priorities for your defense forces moving forward.
While I will dive into each one specifically in subsequent articles, at a high level they are:
• Peer deep: Get visibility of all endpoints—and do so at scale. You have to be able to see
what’s happening all across the network. And, here’s the kicker: It needs to be in real time.
If data is not current, the potential remains for a system, machine, network, or device to
be compromised, and you will lose time fixing it. You also need to view and analyze
historical data to identify when issues occurred and how long they impacted your
organization.