The solution to the unending challenge of marshalling sufficient cybersecurity defense measures in any organization lies in (pick one)

  1. Artificial intelligence
  2. Cyber intelligence
  3. Employee education
  4. Endpoint security

The astute reader will disregard the pick one instruction and argue that each of these measures is helpful, assuming this reader is familiar with what each category entails. The first three categories are at least somewhat self-explanatory, the last, perhaps a bit less so.  Endpoint security is rapidly gaining favor as a method of protecting networks from access through remote devices such as laptops or smart phones or other mobile devices. Each of those devices is considered an endpoint, and is a potential entry point for a cyber threat. As work habits have changed and organizations have permitted employees to use personal devices to connect to enterprise networks, the threat has grown.

CNBC just reported on a UK based firm using artificial intelligence to swiftly respond to cyber attacks. In the story, they note “Australian cybersecurity company Nuix put out a report where they surveyed about 70 professional hackers and penetration testers at last year’s Defcon — the global hacking and security conference — to understand their perspective on cybersecurity. In the report, about 88 percent of the respondents said they could break through cybersecurity defenses and into the systems they target within 12 hours, while another 81 percent said they could identify and take valuable data within the same time frame even when the breach may not be detected for nearly 100 days on average.

The respondents said traditional countermeasures such as firewalls and antiviruses very rarely slowed them down, but having endpoint security technologies were more effective in stopping the attacks.”

Employee education, creating a culture of security sensitivity and best practices, arguably offers the best bang for the buck. Cyber intelligence, the committed act of learning about the actual threat universe surrounding an organization can offer an excellent return on investment. But if you accept the word of professional hackers and pen testers, endpoint security is well worth a look.

By Tom Davis, SDI Cyber Risk Practice

April 18, 2017