At the same time, with the pace of enterprise transformation and innovation only accelerating, and the world of technology moving faster, cybersecurity concerns only continue to grow for private and public organizations. “No threat facing America has grown as fast, or in a manner as difficult to understand, as the danger from cyberattacks,” stated The Heritage Foundation.
Moreover, a whopping 119,000 high-tech hazards are currently being introduced each minute today.
“Every company, even Bob’s Pizza, now has a digital footprint,” said Davis Hake, a defense expert and Adjunct Professor of Cyber Risk Management at the University of California, Berkeley. “Operating safely should be a core business priority and no longer viewed simply as a cost center. Today, cyber risk should be a board-level focus.”
According to market research firm Gartner, addressing an evolving cybersecurity threat landscape is fast becoming today’s top priority for information security and risk management leaders. Ironically though, like answers to many pressing business queries, many of the vital details and insights (e.g. signs of aberrant application or network behavior) that security teams need to successfully defend an enterprise’s digital perimeter often lie waiting within the mountains of data already being collected by organizations.
Accordingly, many firms just need greater visibility into this information, faster tools to facilitate data discovery, and better ways to quickly surface key insights if they’re looking to defend themselves from digital dangers better. To wit, implementing more effective data management and network security practices hold many of the answers to addressing these challenges.
The SolarWinds 2020 compromise is a classic lesson in why enterprises must be more aware, said Davis.
“You have to be ready to respond to cyber threats more readily,” he said. “Your business has to be set up in a flexible way and you’re prepared enough that if a large attack does happen, it’s not catastrophic.”
Implementing a growing range of data management, data mapping and automated application and network oversight tools, which assist by providing continuous cloud monitoring, endpoint security and automated threat detection capabilities, can help strengthen defenses.
In addition to constantly scanning for suspicious activity, hardware or software vulnerabilities and atypical behavior, new tools can help companies stay one step ahead of threat actors, whose intrusions can otherwise go undetected for weeks or months. They can also help manage IT infrastructure and online apps − and confer the insights and intelligence that prompt businesses to ask strategic questions.
Organizations are increasingly waking up and realizing that all of the information they’re collecting has value, said Silver Lion Group’s Rosato.
“Don’t forget that the same types of network or application activity and business or operating details that you already need to be scanning for compliance or security purposes can also provide helpful insights into how to optimize and enhance mission-critical activities, systems, and interactions in the years ahead,” he said.
“The more actively organizations take the perspective that data holds the potential to unlock tremendous insight and value, and invest accordingly, the more successful they’ll be going forward.”