Page 17 - Cyber Defense eMagazine Annual RSA Edition for 2024

attack, resilience demands the full recovery of critical business functions in hours or days. Cyber
resilience is the modern security imperative.

Why Traditional Security Approaches Are Failing

For decades cybersecurity focused on building the impenetrable fortress of cybersecurity, with the
expectation being that somehow there is a perfect formula that will prevent every possible incursion.
Reality tells us otherwise - there are few if any impenetrable cybersecurity programs, and the unrealistic
goals simply cause failure, friction and burnout. A great many programs were also built with the
assumption that the solution was to buy another security product, leading to complicated environments
with so many overlapping and conflicting tools that security teams can’t keep track of them all. While
security technologies still play a vital role, they are only pieces of a constantly changing puzzle. The
evolution of threats and the daily emergence of new malware and techniques mean preventative
measures are simply not enough.

• The Cost of Breaches is Skyrocketing: the average global cost of a breach increases annually,
and it reached $4.3 million in 2023 (IBM Security Cost of a Data Breach Report 2023)
• Cyberattacks Are More Disruptive: interconnectivity of data, applications and systems means
attacks are more disruptive - as recently witnessed in healthcare and critical infrastructure
• Threat Actor Evolution: ransomware-as-a-service, social engineering using artificial
intelligence, and supply chain vulnerabilities are more prevalent than the average security team
can keep up with

Cyber resilience recognizes these issues and focuses on what should be more realistic goals and better
business outcomes from a cybersecurity program. By focusing on identifying risk, withstanding and
responding to incidents, and continuous improvement, cybersecurity teams are far better aligned with
business goals and focus better on security programs that can address today’s realities.

Why Resilience Is Critical

Business critical applications, connected networks, and a growing number of endpoints make resilience
a critical strategy. Organizations in highly targeted industries such as critical infrastructure, healthcare,
and financial services must conduct incident response planning, proactive threat hunting, and
vulnerability management analysis if they are to meet growing challenges and recover from inevitable
attacks.

Resilience is Imperative in Critical Infrastructure

Speaking at a security conference In February, FBI Director Christopher Wray said Chinese nation-state
actor attacks were “ongoing, and at an unprecedented scale.” Deepwatch has customers in critical
infrastructure including pipelines, so we understand their resilience imperative. The presence and
persistence of nation-state actors in critical infrastructure leaves no choice but to build cyber resilience –

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