Protecting your Critical Assets

For retailers, financial institutions and most other industries alike, the pressure to increase the efficiency of their cybersecurity is on. Integrating new devices and technologies to provide a seamless, commercial experience via multiple channels gives clear customer benefits. Unfortunately, this omnichannel approach is accompanied by increased risks, making cybersecurity an ever-evolving and top concern. What’s needed is an integrated security solution that delivers the smooth, secure omnichannel experience customers expect, along with advanced network protection.

Why do companies fail at securing their digital environment? Typically, for one of three reasons:

1. Bad luck. If an advanced attacker chooses your company as a target, then regardless of your security posture, they are likely to succeed. Time and patience are on their side.
2. Poor or non-existent cybersecurity – which effectively invites the attacker in.
3. A cybersecurity program based on technologies and features that relies on detection, response to incidents, and attribution and then assuming that the next attack will be similar. Many companies assume that they can bring the necessary cybersecurity talent in-house, and can buy their way to security through internally focused tools

While omniscience is out of the question, companies can and should use analytic methodologies rooted in machine learning and artificial intelligence to protect critical assets by gaining real-time insight into whether the activity at the technology level is predictive of an increased cyber threat.

To build cybersecurity, attention must be focused on persistent, predictive, real-time analysis of the entirety of discoverable technologies. Data should be compiled from dozens of sources, and partnerships forged with specialized groups, including local, state and federal agencies. One approach is to use a hub-and-spoke system, where policy, procedure, oversight and incident response come from the hub, with the partnerships and specialty capabilities focus on keeping threats at arm’s length.

It is vital to address cybersecurity from an ‘outside-in’ rather than an ‘inside-out’ perspective. Defenses should be adapted dynamically based on knowledge of what’s likely coming and not what has already happened – and decisions on overall security should be based on global activity patterns rather than just the company’s perimeter. Internal defenses should be viewed as the last resort. The team with responsibility for cybersecurity should be given the intelligence to succeed with their tools. To understand the net effect of investments and make smarter choices, calculate the ROI of past and future security spending. The goal is to extend the company’s security perimeter and do so in a fiscally responsible way that provides predictive intelligence enabling preemptive and powerful security investments and decisions.

However, all-source intelligence and security require a specialized skill set that very few companies can offer. For many, the best option may be to work with a trusted partner with outstanding expertise in this area, ensuring effective, efficient, sustainable and dynamic cybersecurity. The right external partner can be a security force multiplier – and can put an end to uncalculated risk-taking in cyber.

Liberty specializes in the integrated collection and analysis of business threat intelligence, threat quantification, and designs strategic fusion cells to better assist our clients with their increasingly unpredictable cyber landscapes.