Pivot points, insights, quantum computing, and false positives.
The Neustar International Security Council (NISC) began with a single survey in 2017 and remains a rich source of insights from cybersecurity leaders to this day. Participating responders provide actionable insights that shape how companies can evolve their strategies to protect online resources.
This paper looks at survey results from 2019-2021 and provides insights into some of the major pivot points in the history of enterprise security. Ransomware, for example, was a top-of-mind concern for members in 2019 and it remains a problem today, but a much different one from a security perspective. Attacks are more frequent, more sophisticated, and powered by well-organized criminal gangs. These are professional operators offering high-level attack services. They have invested in cloud infrastructure as fast as the businesses they target.
As you will read in this paper, that’s not all that has changed. The consequences are much higher now.
Cloud network security.
Another interesting factor is how COVID accelerated digital transformation initiatives. From an IT perspective, this took immediate precedence over all other initiatives for many companies. Enterprises leaned on a web of new cloud and SaaS partners to adapt to the express digital reality brought about by the remote working conditions which in turn was brought about by the pandemic. The speed of cloud adoption this drove was years ahead of what had originally been predicted. This transformation has benefited companies in terms of scale, integration, expansion, and innovation but it’s also had some detrimental effects. The rise of digital partnerships has led to a large expansion of the threat surface that attackers can target and a loss of control over data and applications that are now distributed across multiple cloud and SaaS partner platforms. Making matters more difficult, no two cloud and SaaS platforms have the same security capabilities so it’s up to you to keep track and manage disparate services.
