A guest writer of WEI, see Bill Frank’s biography and contact information at the end of this article.
Michael Lewis coined the term, Moneyball, in his eponymous book published in 2003 and made into a movie in 2011 starring Brad Pitt. Moneyball was about applying analytics to baseball. Billy Beane, the Oakland Athletics General Manager, was the first baseball executive to use analytics to increase the probability of winning games.
Cybersecurity has become one of the most critical aspects of modern business operations, especially for IT executives tasked with safeguarding their organization's digital assets. As cyber threats evolve in complexity and scale, understanding their progression and learning from past incidents is crucial for building resilient defenses. The insights shared during WEI’s recent Cyber Warfare & Beyond event provide IT security leaders a valuable perspective on the major cybersecurity incidents of our time and how they have shaped current strategies.
The goal of every security organization is to protect its data. This mission has become increasingly complex in the face of an expanding attack surface and increasingly sophisticated and frequent attacks waged by relentless adversaries. Effectively responding to security incidents requires the Security Operations Center (SOC) to validate alerts and provide the IR team with critical details on the scope of the threat so they can quickly and reliably remediate the issue. However, several obstacles hinder the SOC from gaining the necessary visibility to deliver this critical insight.
Time is a precious commodity, something that most people wish they had more of. This includes the security operations center (SOC), as analysts are constantly under pressure to stay ahead of cyberattack methodologies to better ensure business continuity. And as sharp as our experts are, the team at WEI cannot create more hours for the day. Still, we can streamline and automate your security operations to effectively make it seem like we have done just that. Enhanced time efficiency is just one of six proven benefits that WEI, in collaboration with Cortex XSIAM by Palo Alto Networks, can offer.
Imagine this: you’re a security analyst on the frontlines of your organization’s cybersecurity team. You stare at your monitor as alerts flood from various security programs, like alarms all going off at once. Then you ask: is it a full-blown attack or simply a routine update? The sheer volume of data makes prioritizing the most urgent threats a constant challenge.
Bad actors are waging increasingly sophisticated and frequent attacks—including ransomware, cyber espionage, zero-day malware and fileless attacks—to exploit endpoint vulnerabilities. These rapid-fire, diverse attacks are generating an average of 11,000 alerts per week that security teams must investigate, triage and address.
As business leaders outside of IT continue accepting cybersecurity as a business strategy rather than just as a digital defense mechanism, there are still major vacancies in the cybersecurity personnel pipeline that require addressing. Knowing this, WEI’s advanced security solutions are complemented by a focus on helping replenish the talent pipeline. This commitment is confirmed by WEI’s partnership with CyberTrust Massachusetts, a non-profit organization working to cultivate a robust talent pipeline. The support CyberTrust receives from its higher education consortium members is paramount, especially with the all-new Cyber Range at Bridgewater State University (BSU) opening earlier this year.
See Bill Frank’s biography and contact information at the end of this article.
[Note: This is an updated version of the original article posted on March 21, 2024. I replaced the term "Governance” Controls with “Performance” Controls to eliminate any confusion with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0 use of the term “Governance.”
I focus here on automated controls that monitor and measure the “performance” of “Defensive” controls that directly block threats or at least alert on suspicious activities.
How well are your cybersecurity controls performing? Measuring control efficacy is challenging. In fact, under-configured, misconfigured, and poorly tuned controls, as well as variances in security processes are the Achilles Heels of cybersecurity programs.
A mismatch between risk reduction potential and performance results in undetected threats (false negatives) as well as an excessive number of false positives. This leads to an increase in the likelihood of loss events.
All controls, whether people, processes, or technologies, can be categorized in one of two ways – Defensive or Performance.
Inside our IT bubble, leaders are aware of the cybersecurity skills shortage that plagues enterprises. As concerning as this challenge is, it may come as a surprise to the general public despite headlines over record ransoms, data leaks, and network breaches. Simply put, there are many more position openings than individuals available to fill them. This imbalance is creating a security gap that cybercriminals are taking advantage of.
As threat actors get more sophisticated and aggressive campaigns become more commonplace, it is imperative that corporations step up their game. In the age of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and automation, the resources for a holistic approach have never been more available. Enterprises are starting to recognize the need to modernize their security operations center (SOC) with an advanced SOC solution. Unfortunately, CISOs everywhere are finding it difficult to identify a partner dedicated enough to conduct their due diligence about customer needs, identify potential solutions on the market, and deliver the know-how to implement the best technical solutions. WEI can do that.
