Security leaders define new requirements for transforming traditional security into a detection and response system for advanced threats

Issued by Redline a division of DRAFTFCB for EMC Southern Africa

Johannesburg, 05 Oct 2012

News summary

* Industry experts assert that today's latest threat landscape requires an evolution of SIEM systems and perimeter-focused defences to gain better visibility, agility and speed into complex IT environments.
* Security teams must deploy big data analytics capabilities, drawing from huge volumes and varieties of security device log and threat-intelligence data, to identify and remediate advanced attacks faster and more effectively.

Full story

RSA, the Security Division of EMC Corporation, has announced a Security Brief providing strategic guidance for how organisations can transform SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) into a more effective platform for combating advanced threats. In this latest RSA Security Brief, "Transforming Traditional Security Strategies into an Early Warning System for Advanced Threats", leading experts in cyber security from CSC, RSA, Terremark and Verizon lay out the capabilities needed in next-generation information security strategies.

Chief among these capabilities is big data security analytics: using vast volumes of information from diverse sources to detect security threats based on behaviours and context, not signatures.

Government agencies and prominent corporations alike have experienced cyber attacks custom-designed to breach their defences. In most cases, attacks were discovered only after damage was done. The Security Brief's authors contend that today's conventional security approaches, focused on the perimeter and anchored by SIEM systems, are designed for yesterday's threats and digital infrastructures, not the highly targeted advanced threats now facing today's more open, mobile and connected organisations.

To detect and defeat advanced threats, organisations should consider an emerging class of security analytics system that can help them gain comprehensive, clear and continuous visibility into complex IT environments. The Security Brief outlines four core capabilities of large-scale security analytics systems.

* Pervasive visibility enabled by network packet capture and full session reconstruction
* Deeper analytics to examine risks in context and compare behaviour patterns
* Massive scalability to handle the diverse deluge of information that's increasingly needed for complete situational awareness
* Centralised repository for security-related data to help security teams analyse incidents in context and speed decision-making about prospective threats

Authors of the RSA Security Brief include some of the industry's foremost security leaders:

* Brian Girardi, Senior Director, Product Management, RSA, the Security Division of EMC
* David Martin, Vice-President and Chief Security Officer, EMC Global Security Organisation, EMC Corporation
* Jonathan Nguyen-Duy, Director of Global Security Services, Verizon
* Mario Santana, Vice-President of Secure Information Services, Terremark, A Verizon company
* Eddie Schwartz, Vice-President and CISO, RSA, the Security Division of EMC
* Dean Weber, Chief Technology Officer, CSC

RSA Security Briefs are designed to provide security leaders with essential guidance on today's most pressing information security risks and opportunities. Each Security Brief is created by a select response team of experts who mobilise across organisations to share specialised knowledge on a critical emerging topic. Offering both big-picture insight and practical technology advice, RSA Security Briefs are vital reading for today's forward-thinking security practitioners.

Executive quote:

"Organisations must rethink their risk-management priorities to reflect today's higher chances for cyber theft. They have to re-architect current security strategies to better handle the unknown with a new set of security tools to complement this new mindset and pick up where traditional security approaches anchored in SIEM systems left off."
- Stephan le Roux, District Manager of RSA, the Security Division of EMC Southern Africa

Additional resources:

* Download the RSA Security Brief
* Listen to a podcast with RSA CISO Eddie Schwartz
* Connect with RSA via Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and the RSA Speaking of Security Blog and Podcast

RSA

RSA, the Security Division of EMC, is the premier provider of security, risk and compliance management solutions for business acceleration. RSA helps the world's leading organisations succeed by solving their most complex and sensitive security challenges. These challenges include managing organisational risk, safeguarding mobile access and collaboration, proving compliance, and securing virtual and cloud environments.

Combining business-critical controls in identity assurance, encryption and key management, SIEM, data loss prevention and fraud protection with industry-leading e-GRC capabilities and robust consulting services, RSA brings visibility and trust to millions of user identities, the transactions they perform and the data that is generated. For more information, please visit www.EMC.com/RSA.

EMC

EMC Corporation is a global leader in enabling business and service providers to transform their operations and deliver IT as a service. Fundamental to this transformation is cloud computing. Through innovative products and services, EMC accelerates the journey to cloud computing, helping IT departments to store, manage, protect and analyse their most valuable asset - information - in a more agile, trusted and cost-efficient way. Additional information about EMC can be found at www.EMC.com.

RSA and EMC are either registered trademarks or trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

This release contains "forward-looking statements" as defined under the Federal Securities Laws. Actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of certain risk factors, including but not limited to: (i) adverse changes in general economic or market conditions; (ii) delays or reductions in information technology spending; (iii) the company's ability to protect its proprietary technology; (iv) risks associated with managing the growth of its business, including risks associated with acquisitions and investments and the challenges and costs of integration, restructuring and achieving anticipated synergies; (v) competitive factors, including but not limited to pricing pressures and new product introductions; (vi) the relative and varying rates of product price and component cost declines and the volume and mixture of product and services revenues; (viii) component and product quality and availability; (viii) the transition to new products, the uncertainty of customer acceptance of new product offerings and rapid technological and market change; (ix) insufficient, excess or obsolete inventory; (x) war or acts of terrorism; (xi) the ability to attract and retain highly qualified employees; (xii) fluctuating currency exchange rates; (xiv) litigation that the company may be involved in; and (xiii) other one-time events and other important factors disclosed previously and from time to time in the filings of EMC Corporation, the parent company of RSA, with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. EMC and RSA disclaim any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements after the date of this release.

Editorial contacts

Security leaders define new requirements for transforming traditional security into a detection and response system for advanced threats

RSA Security Brief provides insights on leveraging new security monitoring and big data analytics capabilities for improved threat detection and remediation.