Is data a valuable asset or a business risk? – Part four

Laurence Pitt, Juniper Networks

In the final part of a four-part series of articles examining how data is a valuable asset as well as a business risk for organisations, Laurence Pitt, the director of security strategy for EMEA at Juniper Networks, explains why proactive datasecurity is essential

According to Gartner endpoints of the IoT will grow at a 33% CAGR from 2015 through 2020, reaching an installed base of 20.4 billion units. Just think of all the data this will generate, especially as the network effect (where the value of the network multiplies each time a new user is added), kicks in. Even if you are not actively investing in IoT – yet, your customers, partners and suppliers will be and they will be sending it to your network and feeding your data mountain so you can make more informed business decisions, more quickly.

But all of this means more opportunities for the cyber-criminal. At some point your network will be exposed to an IoT device that is insecure – not a Windows PC or a Mac, but a vending machine, a CCTV camera, or a refrigerator. So, you need to think laterally when considering your network security posture and you certainly need to deploy something today that can be easily adapted in the future.

More than 357,000,000 new malware attacks were initiated globally in 2016. That’s in excess of 29 million every month. There is no way this volume of attacks could be written by individual hackers. Automation is now intrinsic to cyber-crime. The days of monthly bug fixes are long gone; today it’s all about instant responses to stay ahead of fast-evolving malware, so automation should now be part of your defense, too. Only automation gives you the ability to analyze what’s happening on your network, identify abnormalities, and then fix or flag it before damage can be done.

Educating your workforce is still an important tactic but sometimes the publicity given to the major attacks that succeed can be counter-intuitive. Like terrorism, most of us only hear about the attacks that succeed and not numerous attempts that are thwarted. This can make us blasé in our general approach to security, so education on the latest techniques remains critical.

Use machine learning to identify a problem quickly, then automation to remediate the issue. With this principle, all connected devices will be updated and protected. By using automation to execute the repetitive tasks, your valuable IT resources can be freed up to focus on other business-critical initiatives such as digital transformation.

Key takeaways:

  • Automation is now responsible for proliferating the majority of malware
  • The only response is to have automated security that can quickly detect any network anomalies
  • Automated security leaves your team free to innovate more and the need to firefight less
  • Flexible networks that adapt to the threat horizon can help keep your data secure

We are all now data addicts. More and more data is piling into your organisations every minute and it needs to be processed, stored, and accessed if organisations are to thrive. More importantly, it needs to be protected and secured.

But, as the data value chain evolves, it increases in value not just to your organisation, but also to cyber-criminals. As the latter develop ever more sophisticated means of threat, you must stay one step ahead. But that becomes more challenging in a world of IoT and a world where the perimeter no longer exists.

We can stay ahead of ever more sophisticated cyber-criminals by adopting flexible, programmable networks that adapt to the changing security landscape. By using the power of the network, you can build a platform that intelligently keeps your data – and your business – safe and compliant.

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