Cyber Security is a billion-dollar industry global today with an estimated market value of $137.8 billion. In the next five years, the market value is expected to increase by more than 70 percent amounting to $232 billion.
With the emergence of mobile and cloud based services, the risk of cyber-attacks has increased significantly. This has fueled the rapid investment in cybersecurity all over the world with the US playing a dominate role in driving innovation in the sector.
Innovative Cybersecurity Solution
One cybersecurity company that provides innovative solutions to mid-market businesses is Red Canary. The company combines artificial intelligence and human learning to develop cutting-edge online security solutions. The software solution offered by the company acts like a sentinel, monitoring cyber-attacks and taking actions in case of a security breach.
The Denver-based company has been able to raise about $8.6 million to date. According to Brian Beyer, co-owner of the company, a new approach was required for protecting companies from the online threat. Majority of businesses today spend time adding security features that are comparable to adding door alarms and padlocks in order to protect the data. They hope that by adding more security features they can better protect their sensitive data. However, most of the time this was just a waste of time due to wrong alarms and warnings.
Beyer says that companies need to change their thinning about cyber security. They need to constantly monitor the network for threats and stop them in their tracks. The cybersecurity software offered by the company passively records activities on the system. The software collects a large amount of data and sends it back to the cloud for further processing. The bots in the cloud platform carry on a first-pass through a test to detect suspicious activities.
Unlike most other applications that look for indications of suspicious activities, Red Canary’s cyber security software analyze general behaviors. If any activity looks to be threatening, it is handed over to the expert team of cyber security investigators and responders. The suspicious activity can be carried out by a ransomware such as WannaCry or Petya or it could be an online attack carried out by state-sponsored hackers.
The cyber security specialists of the company carry on a detailed investigation to locate the source of the activity, the actual activity, and then take anappropriate response. The behavior-based hunting results in a more effective identification of online threats. Companies can beef up their security in case it’s confirmed that cybercriminals are targeting the systems.
Security Loopholes Today
Existing systems have yet to catch up with the demands of protecting data online. Beyer says that most security teams today generally focus on data that travels within the organization. In other words, there is lack of visibility regarding activities that originate outside of the office. As a result, attackers had an easy time hijacking the system. He says that security systems should collect activities regarding both on and between the systems to identify risks. This can help detect threats before they go on to do major damage. This is like shining a floodlight on the malicious coders and stopping them on track before they do major damage to the system.
Another major weakness the existing security systems in most companies is that online threats are not investigated fully. According to Beyer, only about 5 percent of the online threats are addressed by professionals. The companies tend to add more security tools result in more alerts. The actual alert becomes hidden among the flood of alerts due to which effective actions are not taken to prevent an attack.
Lastly, there are not enough experts who can counter online threats. A lack of supply of cyber security specialists puts companies at increased risk of online attack. Sophisticated online attacks carried out by state-sponsored hackers require an advanced level of coding skills and architecture knowledge. Online breaches that cost millions of dollars to companies cannot be prevented by non experience IT staff.
A Roundup of Cyber security Trends
Looking into future a number of trends have been identified by the security experts. In the next few years, we could see an increase in ransomware attacks. Attackers continue to get better in extorting money from corporate victims. They will more likely use advanced mode of attack to extort money from the victims. Instead of focusing on encrypting the machines they will focus on spreading the malware on large scale before launching an attack. There will target seemingly secure systems that owners do bother to backup or monitor.
In addition, we could see more proactive use of endpoint data. This can lead to improved visibility that can help the security team to respond quickly to breaches. By implementing endpoint data, experts can have a deeper understanding of suspicious behaviors such as questionable server requests, port activity and more.
The third important trend is increased reliance on shared frameworks. A common framework will help in detecting online threats. The uniform framework can include identifying techniques expected of an attacker. After this is done, we can take a look at different controls and processes that can help in analyzing activities and identifying gaps. This can help in understanding specific threats and taking actions to reduce the threat. Some work has already been done in this regard such as the framework provided by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and MITRE. These standards can help in better identification and coordinated action against security threats.
Cyber security has come a long way in the past few years. It has evolved in line with the changing security needs of corporations who have transitioned to cloud operations. Cloud-based services expose systems to attacks from foreign invaders. Security systems need to evolve in line with changing technologies and systems. There is a need for more security experts who have the expertise and knowledge to respond to sophisticated online threats. Unless these needs and security gaps are fulfilled, we will continue to helplessly see companies being harassed by cybercriminals and getting robbed of millions of dollars of investors’ money.
