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Cybersecurity & Networking

  • Enterprises Need to Embrace Top-Down Cybersecurity Management

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    Jon Oltsik

    GettyImages-146076896When I first entered the cybersecurity market in 2003, I’d already been working in the IT industry for about 16 years in storage, networking, and telecommunications previously. By the early 2000s, all three sectors had moved on from bits and bytes to focusing on how each technology could help organizations meet their business goals. Oh sure, we still talked speeds-and-feeds, but we led with things like business agility, productivity, and cost cutting. The technology was a means to an end rather than an end in itself.

    When I got to the cybersecurity industry, I was surprised by what I saw. Unlike other areas of IT, cybersecurity was still deep in the weeds, focused on things like IP packets, application protocols, and malicious code. In other words, cybersecurity remained a “bottom-up” discipline as the cybersecurity team viewed the world from networks and devices “up the stack” to applications and the business. (more…)

  • Thoughts on IBM Think and Cybersecurity

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    Jon Oltsik

    GettyImages-641199986I just got back from attending IBM Think in San Francisco. Though it was a quick trip across the country, I was inundated with IBM’s vision, covering topics from A (i.e., artificial intelligence) to Z (i.e., System Z) and everything in between. 

    Despite the wide-ranging discussion, IBM’s main focus was on three areas: 1) Hybrid cloud, 2) Advanced analytics, and 3) Security. For example, IBM’s hybrid cloud discussion centered on digital transformation and leaned heavily on its Red Hat acquisition, while advanced analytics included artificial intelligence, cognitive computing (Watson), neural networks, etc. To demonstrate its capabilities in these areas, IBM paraded out customers like Geico, Hyundai Credit Corporation, and Santander Bank, who are betting on IBM for game-changing digital transformation projects. (more…)

  • Cyber Risk Management Disconnect Between Business and Security

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    Jon Oltsik

    GettyImages-641199918A few years ago, cybersecurity professionals often lamented that executives didn’t want good security, they wanted “good enough” security. This axiom reflected that many CEOs equated cybersecurity with regulatory compliance. If the CISO could check all the right PCI, HIPAA, or SOX boxes, cybersecurity concerns were taken care of.

    The “good enough” security attitude was an aversion for the cybersecurity crowd. CISOs who wanted to adequately protect corporate assets longed for a time when business executives would truly appreciate cyber risk and would be willing to participate and fund cyber risk management efforts adequately. (more…)

  • Security Point Tools Problems

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    Jon Oltsik

    At most enterprise organizations, cybersecurity infrastructure grew organically over time. The security team implemented each security control in response to a particular threat, such as if antivirus software appeared on desktops, gateways were added to the network, sandboxes were deployed to detect malicious files, etc. 

    As the security infrastructure grew over the past 10 or 15 years, most enterprises didn’t really have a security technology architecture or strategy at all. And this lack of a cohesive security technology strategy has transcended into real problems. A recent ESG research survey illustrates some of the challenges associated with managing an assortment of security products from different vendors, including the following:

    • 27% of survey respondents (i.e., cybersecurity professionals) say that their security products generate high volumes of security alerts, making it difficult to prioritize and investigate security incidents. Thus, more security tools = more alerts = more work = more problems.
    • 27% of survey respondents say that each security technology demands its own management and operations, straining my organization’s resources. Other ESG research indicates that 51% of organizations have a problematic shortage of cybersecurity staff and skills, so there simply aren’t enough people for the necessary care and feeding of all these security tools.
    • 24% of survey respondents say that their organization needs different solutions for different infrastructure environments that are managed by separate teams, creating operational inefficiencies. In other words, they have security tools for data centers, endpoints, virtual servers, public cloud workloads, etc. Coordinating policy and control across these areas is no walk in the park.
    • 22% of survey respondents say the number of security technologies used at their organization makes security operations complex and time consuming. No surprise here.
    • 20% of survey respondents say that purchasing from a multitude of security vendors adds cost and purchasing complexity to the organization. So, just like security operations, purchasing efficiency and pricing is impacted by the number of security tools used.

    Too many security tools and not enough time to use them correctly is not a new problem, but I would say that the ramifications of this situation are growing increasingly worse all the time. This explains why CISOs are looking to consolidate and integrate their security infrastructure with platforms and architectures. 

    In the past, the security industry had a high population of best-of-breed point tools vendors, but the overall market is undergoing a profound change. The future of the security industry will be dominated by a few big vendors selling enterprise-class integrated solutions. 

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  • Trends in Cloud Data Security

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    Enterprise Strategy Group

    ESG conducted a comprehensive online survey of IT and cybersecurity professionals from private- and public-sector midmarket (i.e., 100 to 999 employees) and enterprise (i.e., 1,000+ employees) organizations in North America (United States and Canada) between August 16, 2018 and September 6, 2018. To qualify for this survey, respondents were required to be IT/information security/risk management professionals responsible for evaluating and purchasing cloud security technology products and services.

    (more…)

  • The Cybersecurity Skills Shortage Is Getting Worse

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    Jon Oltsik

    GettyImages-906499112At the end of each year, ESG conducts a wide-ranging global survey of IT professionals, asking them about challenges, purchasing plans, strategies, etc.  As part of this survey, respondents were asked to identify areas where their organization has a problematic shortage of skills.

    In 2018-2019, cybersecurity skills topped the list – 53% of survey respondents reported a problematic shortage of cybersecurity skills at their organization.  IT architecture/planning skills came in second at 38%. (more…)

  • The Importance of a Common Distributed Data Services Layer

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    Bob Laliberte

    The IT pendulum is swinging to distributed computing environments, network perimeters are dissolving, and compute is being distributed across various parts of organizations’ infrastructure—including, at times, their extended ecosystem. As a result, organizations need to ensure the appropriate levels of visibility and security at these remote locations, without dramatically increasing staff or tools. They need to invest in solutions that can scale to provide increased coverage and visibility, but that also ensure efficient use of resources. By implementing a common distributed data services layer as part of a comprehensive security operations and analytics platform architecture (SOAPA) and network operations architecture, organizations can reduce costs, mitigate risks, and improve operational efficiency.

    (more…)

  • 2019 Will Be the Year of Cloud-based Cybersecurity Analytics/Operations

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    Jon Oltsik

    cloud_security_planeSecurity information and event management (SIEM) systems first appeared around 2000 from vendors like Intellitactics, NetForensics, and eSecurity. The original functionality centered around event correlation from perimeter security devices like IDS/IPS and firewalls. 

    The SIEM market evolved over the past 19 years, with different vendors, functionality, and use cases. SIEM has also grown into a $2.5 billion-dollar market, dominated by vendors like Splunk, IBM, LogRhythm, and AT&T (AlienVault).

    Despite the SIEM evolution, today’s products can be seen as super-sized versions of those of yesteryear. In fact, the original design of SIEM seemed like a knockoff of network and systems management tools CA Unicenter, HP OpenView, and IBM Tivoli. SIEM products were based upon a tiered architecture of distributed data collectors/indexers/processors, and a central database used for data analytics, visualization, and reporting.  (more…)