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Why automated incident response should be on your next

boardroom agenda

By Todd Weller, VP, Corporate Development, Hexis Cyber Solutions

After the year-long streak of high-profile cyberattacks in 2014, enterprise network security is no
longer just about IT. More than ever before, cybersecurity is coming into the focus of boardrooms in
just about every industry. Having seen the legal and reputational nightmares that Sony, Target and
other large enterprises had to face, board-level executives are on notice and looking for ways to
avoid being next in line for a crippling cyberattack.

Where are enterprises directing their investments in cybersecurity?

It's no longer a matter of if a business will be attacked, but when. That may be why a recent
survey from the Ponemon Institute found that the majority of enterprises are investing more into
incident response, rather than solely in traditional perimeter-based defenses.

More than 55 percent of the Ponemon’s survey respondents said that the public's increased
awareness of cyberattacks was a key reason why they built incident response teams to help stop an
in-process attack. Detection, a necessary precursor to response, is also growing in prominence. In
particular, continuous, automated detection is becoming essential to finding threats and alerting the
response team as soon as possible.

Why the response team might not be enough anymore

Having trained professionals at the helm is certainly a necessity in cybersecurity today, but
given the evolution of the threat landscape, comprehensive network security may require more
than just a human touch. Nowhere is this more pronounced than in the health care industry,
which faces higher risks and greater costs in the event of a cyberattack than any other industry.

According to a recent article from Government Health IT, attacks are becoming more frequent and
complex. In addition, regulators have imposed even stricter standards for reporting, which has led
health IT security teams to respond to incidents at a higher rate than ever before. At some point
though, this will become unsustainable - an organization can't just keep throwing more people at the
problem and expect to contain costs.

As the news source noted, when attacks are happening so often and in such a high volume,
enterprises need to find response tools that scale. Fortunately, there are automated detection and
removal tools that catch attacks and deal with them as fast as they come. Adopting these tools will
allow enterprises to remain effective no matter how often hackers try to break in, while keeping
human capital costs down.
10 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – February 2015 Edition
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