Cyber Defense Magazine Special Annual Edition for RSA Conference 2021

priority — enabling remote workforces, securing cloud and video apps, setting permissions and policies,
resolving user missteps, remediating COVID-19 threats, and more.
When your “to do” list changes instantly, it’s tough to get back to implementing your security
strategy. This is even more challenging without the right resources — yet, the fundamentals haven’t
changed. A scalable security plan requires technology that provides situational awareness as well as
capabilities for effective remediation and tools to continually improve your security posture.
But technology is just half the battle. It’s also the people on your team, whether in-house or
outsourced, who help to create a strong threat defense.
The cyber security skills you need in your arsenal
IT environments are more complex and varied than ever before — and this requires as much visibility as
possible across your network, systems, applications, and devices. To gain these insights, you not only
need advanced, continuously improving technology, but human intelligence as well.
In fact, at the rate the cyber security industry evolves, you need security experts constantly ahead of the
curve, educating themselves, and making sure they’re staying on top of the latest threats and the
sophisticated offensive techniques that pose a risk to your operations.
To put this into perspective, here are just a few cyber security roles needed for threat monitoring and
detection:
• Cyber Defense Analyst: Uses data collected from a variety of cyber defense tools (e.g., IDS
alerts, firewalls, network traffic logs) to analyze events that occur within IT environments with the
goal of mitigating threats.
• Cyber Threat Analyst: Develops cyber indicators to maintain awareness of the status of highlydynamic
operating environments. Collects, processes, analyzes, and disseminates cyber threat
and warning assessments.
• Vulnerability Assessment Analyst: Performs assessments of systems and networks within the
network environment, identifying where those systems and networks deviate from acceptable
configurations, enclave policy, or local policy. Measures effectiveness of defense-in-depth
architecture against known vulnerabilities.
75