The final entry in this four-part series really maps closely to the objectives set forth by National Cyber Security Awareness Month, focusing on what is really required to effectively protect systems against cyberattacks. Concerns about evolving cyber threats –a major theme of this article series – have the industry increasingly talking about this topic. Although the threat landscape has dramatically changed, in many instances system vulnerabilities have remained the same over the past 15 years. That’s not to say that the volume of attackers or sensitive information stored in these systems hasn’t significantly increased. The problems that organizations are facing are not necessarily new vulnerabilities, but more so the heightened attention paid to address those issues.
A prime example is the recent JPMorgan Chase data breach, which impacted 76 million households and seven million small businesses. Although it is widely reported that this successful attack came from an organized cyber crime ring out of Russia – a threat scenario that was probably unthinkable 15 years ago – the attack is a case study that has been plaguing the industry for years: how to detect and block a persistent attack. This situation has been witnessed over and over again, from Target and Home Depot to Albertsons and Dairy Queen, leading many to ask how organizations can address these cyber threats.