Once upon a time, when we used to have to go to physical stores to get the products we needed, there was no such thing as the retail “last mile” – the immensely complex final leg of the logistical journey that puts a product into a consumer’s hands. Today, the retail last mile is a massive market that will exceed $300 billion in 2032. It’s also the key to customer satisfaction, retention and repeat sales.
Like the retail last mile, the last mile in security analytics is where value is felt most acutely. And like the last mile in retail – despite the extreme complexity behind the scenes – the security last mile is most effective when it’s transparent to security leaders. Just like a consumer doesn’t care exactly how his new shoes got to his doorstep, CISOs simply need the insights that facilitate decision making – based on real-time data from across the security stack, and with ironclad reliability.
In this article, we’ll take a deep dive into the security last mile – what it is, why it’s still not where it should be, and what needs to happen to fix it.
What is the Security Last Mile?
In the cybersecurity analytics realm, the last mile is the gap between data and a leader’s ability to use that data to reduce risk, mitigate threats and effectively govern security. The problem is that the last mile remains way too long.
Why is this? The security last mile is where security organizations need to reconcile an overwhelming amount of data and derive the actionable insights that help them steer the ship of cybersecurity. The challenge is that this data originates from multiple and often overlapping layers of siloed tools. The average global organization has up to 80 separate security monitoring solutions in place (by some estimates, only 50% of them in actual use).
Each of these tools produces reams of data in multiple formats. Each of these tools is managed by a different organizational entity (IT, Security, DevSecOps, the SOC, you name it). And each of these tools frequently deliver various insights to various users. But what existing tools don’t deliver is the bigger picture based on actual operational data that CISOs need. Currently, cybersecurity leaders and GRC teams struggle to contextualize the data to their own environments, prioritize remediation efforts, and understand how their security is trending against policies and threats. Drowning in manual data wrangling and visualization tasks, they lack the time for strategic leadership or focused planning. They end up stuck between DIY data analysis and relying on their teams to gather information before making decisions.
And even when they can glean insights, context can be missing. For instance, knowing there are gazillion vulnerabilities is one thing, but pinpointing critical risks is what truly matters to stakeholders. This is the security last mile – and without being able to connect security performance to key business metrics, it just stretches on and on.
Smart Platformization Can Help
One trend being pushed by large security vendors to ostensibly help security leaders bridge the security last mile is “platformization.” Driven by tool fatigue, security leaders are urged to use operational tools under a single vendor umbrella.
But there’s a hurdle here.
Security leaders do indeed want to consolidate data. But they want to consolidate data from their own best of breed tools rather than shift their entire toolbox to one vendor. CISOs are looking to smartly “platformize” their environment without compromising on their tools. To make this happen, they need a platform capable of ingesting data from diverse vendors – and sometimes even competing vendors.
By integrating data from various security tools, these platforms eliminate data silos and streamline information flow. And “data dumping” into a data lake isn’t enough. Security stakeholders need the blend of the data called today ‘data fabric’ or ‘data pipeline’ – which comes from automated data collection and integration yet leaves the actual bit and bytes of raw data far from the CISO office and risk teams.
Rather, these smart platforms offer role-centric data visualizations that enable different stakeholders to look at the same data, subject to the same policies, yet in a way that transforms raw data into actionable insights for their unique persona. For example, CISOs and GRC teams need data presented in a way that facilitates strategic decision-making and policy enforcement – replacing cumbersome Excel spreadsheets with dynamic dashboards that bring security data to life. Analysts, on the other hand, require a deeper dive for more detailed investigations. Different insights for different roles yet based on the same data.
The Bottom Line
When you’re tracking your Amazon package, you don’t have to decipher cryptic codes or call warehouses. Rather, a few clicks reveal its exact location and estimated delivery time. This seamless last mile experience is exactly what security leaders deserve when extracting insights from their security stack.
Just as a seamless last-mile delivery experience is crucial for customer satisfaction, bridging the security last mile gap is essential for effective security leadership. Smart platformization – leveraging their own tools-of-choice – empowers security leaders to orchestrate a more effective, more worthy defense. By integrating data and transforming it into actionable insights tailored for different security needs, smart platforms empower leaders to move beyond data wrangling and close the last mile gap.
About the Author
Shirley Salzman is the CEO and Co-Founder of SeeMetrics, a fast-growing company offering the leading security data fabric for risk management. Throughout her career, Shirley has held numerous leading roles at technology companies such as Percepto, Contguard, Logic Industries, and more. Bringing decades of commercial and go-to-market experience to the cybersecurity industry, she is well-equipped to tackle the critical challenge of integrating cybersecurity operations with the rest of the business. Notably, she made history as the first woman to win a gender pay discrimination case in Israel’s high tech sector, showcasing her commitment to equity and justice in the workplace.
Shirley can be reached online at [email protected] and at our company website https://seemetrics.co
