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In order to succeed, CISOs must evolve their approaches across people, process and
technology. Security must be embedded into the culture and made a priority for all members of
the organization. Each individual must feel a sense of ownership and pride in securing the
company’s most important assets, and it must start at the top. It is also critical to invest in
attracting, developing and retaining the right talent to ensure that the organization remains
secure.

Creating and instituting the right processes spans taking regular assessment of all assets (you
can’t protect it if you can’t see it) to regularly and proactively implementing fixes for “known”
vulnerabilities or threats across the organization. According to a recent report by AT&T, 90
percent of the attacks they log are known attacks or their variants – not zero-day attacks.
Security risk also needs to be evaluated and planned for in key business initiatives from the
start – CISOs are uniquely positioned to play this role by effectively translating security
requirements and capabilities into the language of business.

Lastly, CISOs must take an architectural approach to security. That doesn’t necessarily mean
scrapping everything and starting over. The reality is most organizations already have many
different security devices, often from many different vendors. Deploying a truly integrated
security fabric will let businesses maximize existing investments by pulling all of the discrete
solutions together. The result is a collaborative system of tools that work together to monitor the
network, share information and respond to threats, no matter where they occur. A truly
integrated fabric also gives you visibility across your entire network, from endpoint devices
through to the cloud.

At a time when our networks are under constant attack, visibility and end-to-end protection are
critical. With increased network complexity and attacks becoming more sophisticated and
targeted, an integrated security strategy is the only way to ensure that organizations achieve the
digital trust required to fuel the data of today’s global businesses.

About the Author:

Drew Del Matto brings more than 20 years of financial management experience and expertise in
the network security market. Prior to joining Fortinet, Drew held a variety of senior management
roles at Symantec including acting chief financial officer, as well as senior vice president and
chief accounting officer. Drew also served as Symantec’s corporate treasurer and vice president
of finance business operations, responsible for all treasury functions, various aspects of
mergers & acquisitions, pricing and licensing, financial planning and analysis, and revenue
operations. Prior to Symantec, Drew held senior finance leadership roles with Inktomi
Corporation and SGI Corporation. He began his career as a CPA in public accounting with
KPMG LLP.

43 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – April 2017 Edition
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