T R U E N E T W O R K S E C U R I T Y DEPENDS ON MORE THAN Perimeter Defenses Enterprises need to take their security strategy beyond stacking up layers of perimeter defenses to building up predictive intelligence that stops network hacks in their tracks.
Where Network Threats Lie T H E A N S W E R : E V E R Y W H E R E. Networks have extended their reach and their populations, spanning multiple public and private clouds, data centers and carriers and playing host to a slew of connected devices used by employees, contractors, partners and suppliers. As both their spans and endpoints increase, so too does their vulnerability to external as well as internal attacks.
53% More than half of organizations do not have the appropriate controls to prevent an inside attack. The most common ways in which breaches occurred over the last 12 months were internal incidents within the organization 38%. That was followed by external attacks targeting the organization, at 28%. Insider attacks should be of special concern to organizations that have focused primarily on perimeter defenses. Firewalls, intrusion detection, intrusion prevention, sandboxing, VPNs and endpoint protection matter to overall security, of course. But they are not sufficient to thwart internal incidents that may occur either as a result of authorized users' inadvertent misuse or behavior with malicious intent. There is no defense against users who can exploit their legitimate access to an organization's systems and sensitive information. T H E T H R E A T L A N D S C A P E Most Common Means of Attack 38% Internal Incident 28% Direct External Incident 20% Attack Via Partner 18% Lost or Stolen Asset 18% Internal incident within a partner organization SOURCE: INSIDER THREAT SPOTLIGHT REPORT
Investigate Security Spending Priorities As a whole, IT system security isn't neglected when it comes to tech spending. Three-quarters of respondents to the TechPro Research report, Research: IT budget-drivers, trends and concerns in 2016, put improving security for IT systems at the top of their lists. In fact, over 40% of organizations expected to increase network security budgets, Forrester Research has noted.
S E C U R I T Y I N V E S T M E N T D I S C O N N E C T 84% Technologies in current budgets 41% 80% 68% 72% Top performing technologies 57% SOURCE: PONEMON INSTITUTE 2015 52% 44% 52% 45% 51% 49% Intrusion detection or prevention Anti-virus solution Identity and access management Web and email content filtering Encryption of data in motion Encryption of data at rest The issue is whether companies are putting those dollars to work in the most appropriate way to assure true network security. Research indicates that security investments and the return companies receive on them don't always match up most prominently in the case of traditional IDS or IPS perimeter defense solutions. Even identity and access management systems which many CISOs have called upon to function as an additional perimeter defense layer in the face of expanding networks and growing endpoints lag in delivering expected value.
The Threats Getting By Your Defenses As enterprises consider their network security spending priorities, they should take note of the fact that viruses and malware took the top spots in perimeter security breaches, according to recent research. Once these threats make it past the perimeter, sensitive information is at risk, whether inside the network or inside applications that have access to the network. Such findings become of particular concern when measured against other research. Some 60% of IT and IT security practitioners report that the severity of malware infections had significantly increased or increased in the past year, according to recent research from the Ponemon Institute. P R E V A L E N C E O F A T T A C K T E C H N I Q U E Viruses Malware Trojan Horses Spyware Phishing SQL Injection DDos Attacks Botnets Ransomware 76% 74% 66% 60% 55% 50% 49% 46% 46% SOURCE: DATA SECURITY CONFIDENCE INDEX
Risky Business The changes in network architectures and access that render a perimeter defense strategy ineffective on its own have been accompanied by other changes, as well. An important one is that CISOs today are under greater pressure to build digital trust among customers around data use. A significant proportion of companies believe that they are not doing enough to build trust with customers over the use of their data. Customers will avoid dealing with companies they don't believe will keep their data secure. Three quarters of those surveyed said they are likely to avoid doing business with a company that had experienced a data breach where financial data was stolen. The indirect costs of a data breach includes reputational damage and loss of business opportunities and may even result in a fall in share price. T H E N E E D F O R D I G I T A L T R U S T China India United States France Brazil Germany United Kingdom 64% 61% 55% 50% 48% 45% 40% SOURCE: ACCENTURE
Getting Smart About Network Security Enterprises can take steps to better secure their networks on all fronts and the sensitive information residing within these infrastructures and associated applications. The knowledge that change is in order often takes hold after a breach, when spending goes up and strategy shifts. More dollars move to prevention technologies, threat intelligence capabilities, incident response programs and detection technologies. P O S T - B R E A C H I N I T I A T I V E S Spending Increase Prevention Technologies Threat Intelligence Incident Responses Detection Technologies Strategy Shift Personnel Changes 45% 47% 37% 35% 31% 45% 27%
Masergy fills the prediction, protection and detection bill with its extensible, modular, centrally managed and scalable Unified Enterprise Security (UES) system. Perimeter defense technology is included in its solution, but the star players in its integrated and holistic security architecture are adaptive and predictive data sharing, as well as the tracking and analysis capabilities of its network behavior analysis and correlation engine. M A S E R G Y U E S T E C H N O L O G Y A R C H I T E C T U R E A P P L I C A T I O N F R A M E W O R K Threat Management Vulnerability Reports IDS/IPS A D A P T I V E N E T W O R K B E H A V I O R I A L A N A L Y S I S Network Access Policy Monitoring Network Security Reports MA C HINE LEARNING & P R E D I C T I V E A N A L Y S I S Critically, it employs machine learning to detect and thwart network reconnaissance activity prior to an attack by building a highly sophisticated behavioral profile, one that exceeds traditional frequency, threshold, and netflow-based detection methods. With its patented security platform that includes continuous monitoring, CISOs will understand where their business is vulnerable, who is trying to attack it and how before threats from external or internal sources can be triggered. D A T A F R A M E W O R K Detection & Prevention Module Signature Detection Threat Data Raw Packet Data Security Information & Event Management Security Policy Violations Vulnerability Data Firelog and SysLog Data Vulnerability Management Network Security Zones Firewall & SysLog Module
To learn more about how your company can move beyond perimeter defenses and engage with a Unified Enterprise Security solution, visit https://www.masergy.com/talk-expert.