End users are now the most vulnerable point of entry into an organisation
forcing them to shift away from fear-based to opportunity-based cybersecurity
The future of cybersecurity is an enabler of innovation, and organisations
need to shift away from fear-based to opportunity-based cybersecurity.
That’s the word from Matthew Gyde, Dimension Data’s Group Executive –
Security, who says organisations are no longer simply reacting to cyber
threats, but instead creating agile, adaptive IT infrastructures – and even
entire enterprises so that cyber breaches are addressed before they happen.
“Perimeter-based cybersecurity today won’t be sufficient to carry
organisations into the future. In addition, in today’s digital world, data
sharing is essential to the creation of new digital business products such as
Web apps and mobile apps, which integrate customer information, through an
application programme interface (API). However, opening company data up is
risky too, which is forcing leaders to balance the risk and reward of new
digital business value, with the cost of creating properly secured
systems.”
Dimension Data today launched a cybersecurity e-book which helps
organisations to navigate the complex security and technology landscape, and
embrace the paradigm shift where cybersecurity is truly becoming an enabler
of business, lifestyle, healthcare, and a better society,
“Organisation that do well at securing their data will be more likely to
take on the daring innovations their competitors won’t risk,” explains
Gyde who provides a look at what the landscape looks like now, in the next
five years, over the next 10 years.
Here and now
Today’s enterprises are beginning to see the future opportunities of
cybersecurity in the digital world come into focus, but many are still trying
to keep their legacy systems stable and secure.
Just ahead
• As threats become more frequent, more sophisticated, and more
dangerous, organisations begin to struggle with managing cybersecurity on
their own. The needs are too complex to be managed by the general IT
department, and there simply aren’t enough information security
professionals to go around.
• In the next two to five years, entirely new ways of storing,
sharing, and using data will require a major shift in how enterprises think
about identity, value, and security.
• It will soon be commonplace for data to move laterally from one
company’s applications and servers to another and back, 100s – even1000s –
of times per user action across a diverse set of network and application
environments. In this environment, perimeter-based cybersecurity isn’t
effective, so the data itself must be secured as it moves.
• Cybersecurity at the user level is evolving towards this as well,
with a shift to tokens, authentication, and single sign-on (SSO).
• To manage risk and security in the near future, companies must
focus on balancing the need for rapid innovation with the cost of modernising
and securing legacy IT systems.
• Increasing cloud adoption will require that all organisations
manage endpoint security, while some new applications will need to secure the
data itself and make it safe from attack.
On the horizon
• Over the next 10 years, and beyond, enterprises will evolve
rapidly, taking full advantage of opportunities for digital innovation, and
working together to secure the clouds of data that have become essential for
business and daily life.
• Agile organisations that have mastered the security of their
systems will have a competitive advantage, and will be able to selectively
unlock and extrapolate data for enormous societal and individual benefit.
• The edges of the organisation will become increasingly less
relevant as significant strategic partnerships form between digitised
companies.
• It’s likely that organisations who take the lead in exploring
new digital business models and offerings – autonomous vehicle companies,
for example – will become targets for increasingly skilled cybercriminals.
These organisations will need new, agile strategies for managing and
designing secure IT to manage the risks that come with accelerated innovation
and evolution.
Source: realwire
