Threats are not new to business. Whenever there has been a plentiful economic prize, there have also been pirates. In the swashbuckling days, the captain and the crew were charged with protecting the merchandise on board. The difference today is the sheer volume of cyber attacks inbound to companies. Carolyn Crandall, the Chief Security Advocate and CMO at Attivo Networks, describes the attack as an enormous wave.

Main Takeaways

• A Security Threat Tsunami: Cyber attacks are like giant perpetual waves. Businesses are constantly inundated with these threats. The first steps toward fighting back are recognizing the power of one’s adversaries, understanding how the company is being attacked, knowing where the company’s vulnerabilities are, and then devising a plan to combat the attacks.
• Strategy over Monitoring: Businesses tend to want to monitor their systems and that’s generally a good thing. Part of the method of attackers, however, is to overwhelm with data. Instead of only monitoring, companies have to decipher attacker techniques and then strategize on how to defend accordingly.
• Automate, Automate!: People can only do so much by themselves to defend against constant cyber attacks. Automation can be an answer to these attacks. Humans can’t protect against the deluge of attacks by themselves and must lean on A.I. and machine learning to help combat these nefarious attacks. When companies begin to deploy an A.I. defense strategy, the designed algorithms can begin to decipher what is normal activity on network servers and what is not.
• Data Cloak and Disrupt: Misusing credentials is a great way for attackers to gain access to resources. It is possible to have an automated system, such as Attivo, that can bait rogue elements, gain their trust, and then deny their access while hiding vital data.

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