Technology Record - Issue 23: Winter 21/22

70 www. t e c h n o l o g y r e c o r d . c om The traditional approach to cybersecurity where IT systems are protected from criminals by a steel fortress is no longer fit for purpose. Instead, organisations seeking growth must balance risk with innovation and find an alternative way to secure their environment. Today, hack attempts on any device connected to the internet are reported to occur at a rate of one every 39 seconds. The average total cost of a breach has increased by nearly 10 per cent from 2020 to 2021, the largest single-year cost increase in the past seven years. Although many organisations are recognising the issues with traditional security solutions and collective spending on security is set to exceed $150 billion by the end of 2021, business leaders need to take a step back and consider security holistically before investing in additional systems and approaches. A key flaw in the traditional approach to threat detection and response is that businesses often deploy point solutions to protect against specific security threats. This layered approach leads to far too much “noise,” overwhelming teams with alerts and information that they can’t react quickly to. A recent Gartner report revealed that 60 per cent of digital businesses could suffer major losses due to the inability of security teams to fully manage digital risks. With increased remote working and larger attack surfaces cyber professionals are stretched. Vulnerabilities are compounded by the cyberskills shortage and security professionals lacking visibility due to traditional methods. By focusing on policing the perimeter, it becomes easy to miss significant incidents and events on internal networks. Given this, it’s no surprise that IBM has reported that security effectiveness has in fact declined by 13 per cent. Instead, businesses should look to holistic, future-facing security approaches that embed security into the digital fabric of the business itself rather than fencing off operations. To compete in today’s marketplace, businesses need to be agile and adapt to opportunities in real time. It’s no longer enough to just protect infrastructure, instead we need to be focused on protecting the applications and data inside of them. Businesses need an approach with the capacity to powerfully monitor and maintain the entire domain, surfacing threats before they become an issue and offer immediate telemetry. Security approaches for modern business practices With traditional strategies for cybersecurity no longer fit for purpose, businesses need to focus on defending applications and data inside of them M I C K MCNE I L : LOG I CA L I S V I EWPO I NT “To compete in today’s marketplace, businesses need to be agile and adapt to opportunities in real time”

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