Security Magazine logo
  • Sign In
  • Create Account
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
  • NEWS
  • MANAGEMENT
  • PHYSICAL
  • CYBER
  • BLOG
  • COLUMNS
  • EXCLUSIVES
  • SECTORS
  • EVENTS
  • MEDIA
  • MORE
  • EMAG
  • SIGN UP!
cart
facebook twitter linkedin youtube
  • NEWS
  • Security Newswire
  • Technologies & Solutions
  • MANAGEMENT
  • Leadership Management
  • Enterprise Services
  • Security Education & Training
  • Logical Security
  • Security & Business Resilience
  • Profiles in Excellence
  • PHYSICAL
  • Access Management
  • Fire & Life Safety
  • Identity Management
  • Physical Security
  • Video Surveillance
  • Case Studies (Physical)
  • CYBER
  • Cybersecurity News
  • More
  • COLUMNS
  • Cyber Tactics
  • Leadership & Management
  • Security Talk
  • Career Intelligence
  • Leader to Leader
  • Cybersecurity Education & Training
  • EXCLUSIVES
  • Annual Guarding Report
  • Most Influential People in Security
  • The Security Benchmark Report
  • Top Guard and Security Officer Companies
  • Top Cybersecurity Leaders
  • Women in Security
  • SECTORS
  • Arenas / Stadiums / Leagues / Entertainment
  • Banking/Finance/Insurance
  • Construction, Real Estate, Property Management
  • Education: K-12
  • Education: University
  • Government: Federal, State and Local
  • Hospitality & Casinos
  • Hospitals & Medical Centers
  • Infrastructure:Electric,Gas & Water
  • Ports: Sea, Land, & Air
  • Retail/Restaurants/Convenience
  • Transportation/Logistics/Supply Chain/Distribution/ Warehousing
  • EVENTS
  • Industry Events
  • Webinars
  • Solutions by Sector
  • Security 500 Conference
  • MEDIA
  • Videos
  • Podcasts
  • Polls
  • Photo Galleries
  • Videos
  • Cybersecurity & Geopolitical Discussion
  • Ask Me Anything (AMA) Series
  • MORE
  • Call for Entries
  • Classifieds & Job Listings
  • Continuing Education
  • Newsletter
  • Sponsor Insights
  • Store
  • White Papers
  • EMAG
  • eMagazine
  • This Month's Content
  • Advertise
Security Magazine logo
search
cart
facebook twitter linkedin youtube
  • Sign In
  • Create Account
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
Security Magazine logo
  • NEWS
    • Security Newswire
    • Technologies & Solutions
  • MANAGEMENT
    • Leadership Management
    • Enterprise Services
    • Security Education & Training
    • Logical Security
    • Security & Business Resilience
    • Profiles in Excellence
  • PHYSICAL
    • Access Management
    • Fire & Life Safety
    • Identity Management
    • Physical Security
    • Video Surveillance
    • Case Studies (Physical)
  • CYBER
    • Cybersecurity News
    • More
  • BLOG
  • COLUMNS
    • Cyber Tactics
    • Leadership & Management
    • Security Talk
    • Career Intelligence
    • Leader to Leader
    • Cybersecurity Education & Training
  • EXCLUSIVES
    • Annual Guarding Report
    • Most Influential People in Security
    • The Security Benchmark Report
    • Top Guard and Security Officer Companies
    • Top Cybersecurity Leaders
    • Women in Security
  • SECTORS
    • Arenas / Stadiums / Leagues / Entertainment
    • Banking/Finance/Insurance
    • Construction, Real Estate, Property Management
    • Education: K-12
    • Education: University
    • Government: Federal, State and Local
    • Hospitality & Casinos
    • Hospitals & Medical Centers
    • Infrastructure:Electric,Gas & Water
    • Ports: Sea, Land, & Air
    • Retail/Restaurants/Convenience
    • Transportation/Logistics/Supply Chain/Distribution/ Warehousing
  • EVENTS
    • Industry Events
    • Webinars
    • Solutions by Sector
    • Security 500 Conference
  • MEDIA
    • Videos
      • Cybersecurity & Geopolitical Discussion
      • Ask Me Anything (AMA) Series
    • Podcasts
    • Polls
    • Photo Galleries
  • MORE
    • Call for Entries
    • Classifieds & Job Listings
    • Continuing Education
    • Newsletter
    • Sponsor Insights
    • Store
    • White Papers
  • EMAG
    • eMagazine
    • This Month's Content
    • Advertise
  • SIGN UP!
Security Leadership and ManagementCybersecurity News

Lose Battles, But Win the War: Devising a Grand Strategy for Security

By Brad Mallard
rackspace-wargames
March 5, 2019

It’s clearly a good idea to build solid defenses to try and prevent successful cyberattacks, but it’s important to be realistic. Consider that 67 percent of global enterprises have now been breached, according to Thales, and you’ll soon realize that it’s not a question of “if” you’re going to be hacked, but rather “when.” Losing the odd battle is inevitable, but with the right strategy you can make sure that you win the war.

Relying upon an external perimeter of firewalls, internet proxy services and gateways is a fundamentally flawed, but extremely common approach. The trouble is that once attackers find a way round your “Maginot Line” of defenses, they have a clear run on Paris, which in this analogy is your data. The most valuable asset any company possesses is its data, so perhaps starting there and building defenses out is a better way to view the problem.

Let’s take a closer look at a few vital considerations for anyone drawing up a grand strategy for security.

Clouds on the Horizon

The enterprise has embraced the cloud and cloud services have proliferated in the last few years. While 81 percent of enterprises have a multi-cloud strategy today, according to Right Scale’s State of the Cloud Report, 77 percent have correctly identified security as a challenge. It’s not unusual for an enterprise to be working with 20 different cloud providers. Businesses and their end users are typically using hundreds of cloud services at any given moment. This all adds up to massive potential for data leakage, for data loss, and for regulatory compliance issues.

Cloud services are often adopted directly by business units now, so resilience and business continuity may not have been given the consideration they’re due. Many organizations are also exposing internal data through their APIs which could be providing business competitors with valuable insights that can be used to dull your competitive edge.

A proper assessment of your potential business risk requires a broad interrogation of your cloud adoption, backed up by comprehensive protection at the edge, where people connect.

Detecting Data Leakage

Just as sensitive business data may be exposed by multi-cloud environments, personal data is increasingly at risk through social media. When data gets into the wrong hands it represents a serious threat to your security. You can’t take it for granted that your data isn’t out there. Just because you haven’t detected a breach doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist, after all most breaches are several weeks old before they’re detected.

Run some business risk cyber-threat analysis tools against your company name. Search for sensitive data, whether it’s secret code names, individuals' names, your CEO's address, certain credit card numbers, account numbers, or maybe even entire paragraphs, pages or pictures in documents. You must ensure that this information is not available outside your organization, possibly even for sale on the Dark Web.

You don’t want to find anything, but if it’s out there it’s far better to know. This way you can act to protect your customers, prevent further leaks and trace possible gaps in your defenses. Proactive insight enables you to safeguard your business reputation and maintain trust and confidence.

Consider Your Partners

It’s vital to apply the same scrutiny to your rapidly growing ecosystem of partners and cloud services as you do to your own organization. If you don’t carefully manage this complexity and achieve a high level of oversight, then you run a very real risk of fines for non-compliance. Your customers are no more likely to apportion blame to a third-party partner than the regulators, so you can add reputational damage to the threat list.

Working with start-ups and other digital partners is crucial to drive innovation but perform due diligence and pick partners that are compliant, trustworthy and ISO-certified at the level you need. If new partners with less mature security strategies have access to your environment, then hackers will view them as low hanging fruit and use them as a backdoor in. You need real visibility and control to provide secure contextualized access for remote workers and third-parties.

Artificial Intelligence and Automation

Finding threats and dealing with them swiftly and effectively is key. Within minutes of setting up a server with an open port nowadays, there are going to be exploitation attempts. Automated defenses to flag problems and close gaps are one of the best ways to nullify the threat.

Employ AI and behavioral analytics to scan for patterns and identify anomalies and suspicious traffic. If something is out of the ordinary, you can shut it down automatically with the right, properly configured tools, effectively slamming that door shut before the attacker gets in. Real-time monitoring that encompasses analysis of data movement and traffic patterns, combined with micro-segmentation of your network, can prove very effective.

Security is a war that’s continually raging, and you will lose the odd battle, but a grand strategy looks beyond that at the bigger picture, planning ahead and plotting a course for a more secure future.

 

KEYWORDS: cloud security cyberattack cybersecurity leadership data breach

Share This Story

Looking for a reprint of this article?
From high-res PDFs to custom plaques, order your copy today!

Brad Mallard is CTO, Digital Technology Services for Fujitsu EMEIA, responsible for technology strategy, multi-cloud strategy and portfolio and the CTO Team across the European region. Fujitsu is the leading Japanese information and communication technology (ICT) company, offering a full range of technology products, solutions, and services. Approximately 140,000 Fujitsu people support customers in more than 100 countries.

Recommended Content

JOIN TODAY
To unlock your recommendations.

Already have an account? Sign In

  • Security's Top Cybersecurity Leaders 2024

    Security's Top Cybersecurity Leaders 2024

    Security magazine's Top Cybersecurity Leaders 2024 award...
    Security Enterprise Services
    By: Security Staff
  • cyber brain

    The intersection of cybersecurity and artificial intelligence

    Artificial intelligence (AI) is a valuable cybersecurity...
    Logical Security
    By: Pam Nigro
  • artificial intelligence AI graphic

    Assessing the pros and cons of AI for cybersecurity

    Artificial intelligence (AI) has significant implications...
    Cybersecurity Education & Training
    By: Charles Denyer
Manage My Account
  • Security eNewsletter & Other eNews Alerts
  • eMagazine Subscriptions
  • Manage My Preferences
  • Online Registration
  • Mobile App
  • Subscription Customer Service

Security’s Top 5 – 2024 Year in Review

Security’s Top 5 – 2024 Year in Review

The Money Laundering Machine: Inside the global crime epidemic - Episode 24

The Money Laundering Machine: Inside the global crime epidemic - Episode 24

Middle East Escalation, Humanitarian Law and Disinformation – Episode 25

Middle East Escalation, Humanitarian Law and Disinformation – Episode 25

More Videos

Sponsored Content

Sponsored Content is a special paid section where industry companies provide high quality, objective, non-commercial content around topics of interest to the Security audience. All Sponsored Content is supplied by the advertising company and any opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily reflect the views of Security or its parent company, BNP Media. Interested in participating in our Sponsored Content section? Contact your local rep!

close
  • Sureview screen
    Sponsored bySureView Systems

    The Evolution of Automation in the Command Center

  • Crisis Response Team
    Sponsored byEverbridge

    Automate or Fall Behind – Crisis Response at the Speed of Risk

  • Perimeter security
    Sponsored byAMAROK

    Why Property Security is the New Competitive Advantage

Popular Stories

Rendered computer with keyboard

16B Login Credentials Exposed in World’s Largest Data Breach

Verizon on phone screen

61M Records Listed for Sale Online, Allegedly Belong to Verizon

Security’s 2025 Women in Security

Security’s 2025 Women in Security

blurry multicolored text on black screen

PowerSchool Education Technology Company Announces Data Breach

Half closed laptop

Sudo Vulnerability Discovered, May Exposes Linux Systems

Events

August 7, 2025

Threats to the Energy Sector: Implications for Corporate and National Security

The energy sector has found itself in the crosshairs of virtually every bad actor on the global stage.

August 27, 2025

Risk Mitigation as a Competitive Edge

In today’s volatile environment, a robust risk management strategy isn’t just a requirement—it’s a foundation for organizational resilience. From cyber threats to climate disruptions, the ability to anticipate, withstand, and adapt to disruption is becoming a hallmark of industry leaders.

View All Submit An Event

Products

Security Culture: A How-to Guide for Improving Security Culture and Dealing with People Risk in Your Organisation

Security Culture: A How-to Guide for Improving Security Culture and Dealing with People Risk in Your Organisation

See More Products

Related Articles

  • hacker ransomware

    14 ways to win the war against ransomware

    See More
  • NoblePeak Vision Win’s Grand Final of Global Security Challenge 2007

    See More
  • identity-freepik1170x658v470.jpg

    Identity security is a priority for IT security teams, but not understood by the C-suite

    See More

Related Products

See More Products
  • Physical-Security-and-Safet.gif

    Physical Security and Safety: A Field Guide for the Practitioner

  • security culture.webp

    Security Culture: A How-to Guide for Improving Security Culture and Dealing with People Risk in Your Organisation

  • 9780367339456.jpg.jpg.jpg

    Cyber Strategy: Risk-Driven Security and Resiliency

See More Products
×

Sign-up to receive top management & result-driven techniques in the industry.

Join over 20,000+ industry leaders who receive our premium content.

SIGN UP TODAY!
  • RESOURCES
    • Advertise
    • Contact Us
    • Store
    • Want More
  • SIGN UP TODAY
    • Create Account
    • eMagazine
    • eNewsletter
    • Customer Service
    • Manage Preferences
  • SERVICES
    • Marketing Services
    • Reprints
    • Market Research
    • List Rental
    • Survey/Respondent Access
  • STAY CONNECTED
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • YouTube
    • X (Twitter)
  • PRIVACY
    • PRIVACY POLICY
    • TERMS & CONDITIONS
    • DO NOT SELL MY PERSONAL INFORMATION
    • PRIVACY REQUEST
    • ACCESSIBILITY

Copyright ©2025. All Rights Reserved BNP Media.

Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing

Security Magazine logo
search
cart
facebook twitter linkedin youtube
  • Sign In
  • Create Account
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
Security Magazine logo
  • NEWS
    • Security Newswire
    • Technologies & Solutions
  • MANAGEMENT
    • Leadership Management
    • Enterprise Services
    • Security Education & Training
    • Logical Security
    • Security & Business Resilience
    • Profiles in Excellence
  • PHYSICAL
    • Access Management
    • Fire & Life Safety
    • Identity Management
    • Physical Security
    • Video Surveillance
    • Case Studies (Physical)
  • CYBER
    • Cybersecurity News
    • More
  • BLOG
  • COLUMNS
    • Cyber Tactics
    • Leadership & Management
    • Security Talk
    • Career Intelligence
    • Leader to Leader
    • Cybersecurity Education & Training
  • EXCLUSIVES
    • Annual Guarding Report
    • Most Influential People in Security
    • The Security Benchmark Report
    • Top Guard and Security Officer Companies
    • Top Cybersecurity Leaders
    • Women in Security
  • SECTORS
    • Arenas / Stadiums / Leagues / Entertainment
    • Banking/Finance/Insurance
    • Construction, Real Estate, Property Management
    • Education: K-12
    • Education: University
    • Government: Federal, State and Local
    • Hospitality & Casinos
    • Hospitals & Medical Centers
    • Infrastructure:Electric,Gas & Water
    • Ports: Sea, Land, & Air
    • Retail/Restaurants/Convenience
    • Transportation/Logistics/Supply Chain/Distribution/ Warehousing
  • EVENTS
    • Industry Events
    • Webinars
    • Solutions by Sector
    • Security 500 Conference
  • MEDIA
    • Videos
      • Cybersecurity & Geopolitical Discussion
      • Ask Me Anything (AMA) Series
    • Podcasts
    • Polls
    • Photo Galleries
  • MORE
    • Call for Entries
    • Classifieds & Job Listings
    • Continuing Education
    • Newsletter
    • Sponsor Insights
    • Store
    • White Papers
  • EMAG
    • eMagazine
    • This Month's Content
    • Advertise
  • SIGN UP!