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Our guest today is a grizzled veteran of the cyber wars. Chuck Herrin from F5 Networks has considerable experience in commercial and federal networks to see trends.

For example, years ago one could diagram a network easily. Today, we have complex systems that are bombarded with data. Virtual systems are allowing for databases to be created on the fly. Combine that with storage being split between in-house systems and many clouds, you get a situation difficult to understand.

Some hark back to 1970 when the Temptations released a song called "Ball of Confusion." Chuck has seen systems that can be appropriately titled a ball of confusion.

The solution? Understand your architecture. This way, you know all your endpoints and realize that the architecture is, in effect, your attack surface. From there, take a close look at your Application Program Interfaces.

Traditionally, one attack vector was the application itself. However, new cloud-based systems mean a process of distributed applications. As a result, the new attack point may be the API. We have a new term called a "leaky" API.

Chuck Herrin will share with listeners his experience and give you a deeper understanding of the role of protection of the API as part of a full orb strategy to protect vital federal data.