Posts Tagged ‘Cyber Threat’
Posted by Heather Howland in Cybersecurity, Federal, Security Intelligence, Threat Management
In a post published earlier this week, I invited you to read the latest article written by Chris Poulin for SecurityWeek. In this article, Chris presented his belief that full breach disclosure and better collaboration among security professionals is key to thwarting today’s cyber threats.
In line with this belief, proposed breach legislation is also attempting to make disclosure and collaboration a center point of the nation’s cyber security strategy. According to an article on CNN’s Security Clearance blog, such legislation would “enable the intelligence community to share classified information with the private sector while at the same time addressing the concerns private companies have with providing information about attacks on their systems to the government.”
This addresses weaknesses outlined in an INSA study published this past summer, in which the authors suggested both private industry and public agencies have a responsibility to defend the country against cyber attack. In this proposed law, not only would businesses be required to share information about attacks with the government, the government would also share intelligence with security-cleared organizations. This would open up communication channels in the cyber-intelligence community immensely, creating the type of collaborative environment Poulin describes in his article.
What do you think? Can collaboration between the federal government and private industry help defend the country from a major cyber attack? Does it seem too idealistic to imagine that these sectors can work together? Share your thoughts below!
Posted by Heather Howland in Cybersecurity, Risk Management, Security Intelligence, SIEM, Threat Management
Back in May, I was in the process of moving, starting a new job AND finishing my thesis for graduate school. To say the least, it was a VERY stressful time and I am so thankful that combination of events will never occur for me again. However, today I read an article that made me relive those stressful days, because I was forced to look back on my life and wonder, is there anything more stressful than a data breach?
According to Computer Business Review magazine, not much! In a study of IT managers in Canada, the US and Australia, they discovered that not even divorce was ranked as stressful as a breach. Due to fears that their jobs would be terminated if information was lost or stolen (or even inadvertently shared in social media), survey respondents indicated that being laid off or even getting in a car accident would be preferred to dealing with the outcome of breach!
That’s some shocking news, especially considering that breaches are becoming inevitable and that the real challenge for security professionals isn’t avoiding a breach, it’s mitigating the risk that comes along with the attack. I know being breached has to be stressful, but I’d like to imagine that with the right technology and infrastructure in place, there are ways to make it less so.
Take for example this scenario- if you knew what information had been compromised, when it happened, where the attack came from, and what machines were impacted, wouldn’t that make remediation addressable?
That’s the peace of mind customers of our Security Intelligence solutions have. They are able to answer the who, what, when and where because QRadar provides context and forensic data from across their networks so they can determine where their greatest risks are and take the necessary steps. This helps them prepare for attacks BEFORE they happen, but it also makes responding to attempted breaches a lot easier and quicker.
Thinking back to that article, I wonder what the study results would have been if those IT Managers had Security Intelligence in their network infrastructure?
To learn more about how Security Intelligence can help reduce the uncertainty surrounding a breach, watch this video about the Security Intelligence Timeline.
Posted by Heather Howland in Cloud Security, Cybersecurity, Federal, Security Intelligence, SIEM, Threat Management
Click image to launch video
Last week I shared part one of John Burnham’s discussion of the INSA study released earlier this month. In this post, we continue the conversation and move onto the role of Security Intelligence as a cloud and how it could be used as part of a comprehensive cyber-strategy.
John cites a QRadar Security Intelligence customer, The Salt River Project (the nation’s third largest public power and utility company), as an example of an organization who has used next-gen SIEM to cross organizational divides. He explains that the federal government could deploy Security Intelligence across all organizations under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to collect and report data securely and confidentially to DHS, much like The Salt River Project has done to collect intelligence across its several internal agencies.
Watch the video to hear what else John thinks the Federal Government could be doing to strengthen their strategy for preventing cyber-threats.
Posted by Heather Howland in Cybersecurity, Federal, Threat Management
Click to launch the video
Recently, I sat down with John Burnham to talk about the Cyber Security Study the Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA) released. The study contained analysis and recommendations for the federal government concerning steps they feel are necessary to strengthen the security posture of the United States against Cyber Threats. Given the high profile hack INSA experienced this week, this information is more than timely and we are excited to share it with you!
Watch this short video to hear what John had to say about the INSA study, as well as an article from Network World on the same topic. And, be sure to come back next week to hear more from John, where we continue our discussion on the INSA study and discuss where Security Intelligence fits into the picture.
The latest on Cyber Security