Protecting Your Digital Assets Against Cyber Attacks. Cyber Criminals Are Probably Winning. Here is why.

You have been hacked! Those are four words that no organisation wants to hear — ever. The reality is that all organisations are vulnerable to cyber criminals activities.

That’s a mind blowing figure. In this article, I share some thoughts as to why the current mechanisms of fighting back against cyber attacks are not working. Read on.

There are many reasons why cyber criminals appear to be winning the fight and reaping the rewards. For one, it is clear that cybercrime pays and most of those criminal organisations now run like legitimate businesses with organised operations, strategies, support, and profits reinvested into research and development efforts.

Those criminal organisations are not much different to security software vendors that are continuously looking for issues and provide updates to patch vulnerabilities and security flaws. It’s an always on race.

Fundamentally software will continue to have vulnerabilities that can be exploited by malicious attackers for their own gains. As software developers get more adept at secure coding, it is expected that vulnerabilities will steadily diminish but cannot be avoided altogether. Machines are very good at boring and repetitive tasks but lack context and insights. Humans are very good at contextualising and finding solutions in creative ways but lack the repetitive stamina to conduct boring tasks consistently. As machines carry more and more automated security analysis to look for vulnerabilities in various systems, both humans and machines must work together.

Organisations will need to find better ways to integrate their entire cyber security infrastructure and ecosystem in order to respond better and faster to cyber attacks. Like criminal organisations, companies that are serious about cyber security will have to use a defence-in-depth strategies that include a fully integrated security infrastructure that is working as one effective defence system. They should combine traditional network defence mechanisms such as firewalls, intrusion detection systems, endpoint protection, web application firewalls, etc. with external threat intelligence methods, and adaptive threats response, in order to stay one step ahead of cyber criminals.

The cyber security industry is ripe for consolidation. Too many security vendors. Too many products. What is required is a fully integrated approach to cyber security, where humans and machines work as one, in an self-automated and coordinated manner in order to fight back effectively against the relentless and ever growing cyber threats.

Related posts:

AI assistants are rapidly colonizing consumers’ homes. Analysts estimate that Amazon, for instance, has sold some 25 million Echo smart speakers, which people use to engage with its AI assistant…

I never did a workshop to find my purpose. I never read a book about my purpose. I didn’t even know I had a purpose. It happened one morning when I was crammed in a car of the Metro Orange Line on my…

I often get asked what are the most important skills for a student to learn going into the coming decade of new AI technology. I have some ideas about why I’m asked this, but it still surprises me…