Cloud and mobile computing are cost-effective ways for employees to tap data from anywhere, but it also poses the risk of losing control of that data.
So says Ravi Bhat, IBM SA executive, who believes that the answer lies with security intelligence, a system that uses advanced analytics and automation technology to collect and analyse information from hundreds of sources across an organisation.
These include applications, user activity, mobile endpoints and physical security devices, such as badge readers.
“The reality is that the days when security was the CIO's burden to bear are gone. Instead, the entire executive team now needs to be involved in predicting, identifying and reacting to potential threats,” Bhat points out.
He says security analytics software flags abnormal and malicious behaviour to predict and prevent issues before they impact the organisation.
Bhat says every part of an organisation needs to identify key threats and compliance mandates, review existing security risks and challenges, implement risk management programmes, and execute incident management plans when a crisis hits.
According to Bhat, security does not stop at a company's walls. “When it comes to partners, companies need to work across the supply chain to develop and implement security standards and to develop programmes for reporting on and managing risks as a normal part of business operations.”
He adds that analytics can identify previous breach patterns and outside threats to predict potential areas of attack. “It can mine employee systems behaviour to identify patterns of potential misuse, and it's able to monitor the external environment for potential security threats.”
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