The traditional IT security approach of shutting down perimeters and responding after breaches leaves CIOs, CEOs and company boards at high risk, warns security specialist Blue Coat.
"Once, traditional SIEM technology and firewalls were enough. No more," says Marc Andrews, Blue Coat senior VP, Worldwide Field Operations. "Traditional security approaches no longer apply in an environment characterised by ever-evolving threats and disruptive technologies such as mobile, cloud, social media and big data."
Andrews notes that where once IT security was in effect as a "nice-to-have insurance policy", now, ineffective security threatens the jobs of the CIO and CEO, and the future of the entire enterprise. "Now, companies risk huge financial and brand reputation losses in the event of a breach, and boards are being held accountable," he says.
As an example, Andrews highlights recent high profile data breaches in the retail industry. Executives lost jobs and some retailers saw drops in customer revenues as breaches were reported. In addition, a number of companies are facing lawsuits filed by consumers, shareholders and banks. "These factors are an indication of the new level of risk and accountability impacting enterprise management," says Andrews. "Security can no longer be ignored."
Andrews points out that breaches on this scale are often financed by organised crime with significant resources. "They approach hackers to get them the information they want, and the hackers may use a variety of methods to get it - from phishing to malware."
While some of the biggest high-profile hacks have taken place in the US and Europe, South African business should not assume it won't be targeted, says Andrews. "State-sponsored attacks, hacktivism and targeted attacks are on the rise everywhere. In South Africa, where the economy is working on growing, enterprises should be doing everything in their power to protect their IP, jobs and brand reputation."
Blue Coat says too many enterprises still wait until there has been a breach to take action. This is a serious mistake, says Andrews, since in many cases it can take weeks or even months to detect a breach. Key to mitigating IT security disasters is a proactive approach, a 360-degree view of the IT environment, and the ability to identify and take action against threats in real-time. In addition, enterprises must be able to add context and relevance to data on breaches, to determine how, when and why they happened, and mitigate against similar attacks in future.
In the face of a new threat environment, Blue Coat has been taking a new approach to IT security, says Andrews. The company's collaborative approach includes a more open architecture that integrates with other vendor solutions; thereby enabling a modular approach to upgrading security. With recent acquisitions Blue Coat has expanded its portfolio to address critical new security needs, including securing SSL encrypted traffic and reducing the time to detection.
Blue Coat will outline the global IT security threat environment and demonstrate Blue Coat's Advanced Threat Protection solutions at an upcoming seminar to be staged in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Click here to register for this event in Johannesburg and here for this event in Cape Town.
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