We’ve all heard of phrases such as making up for lost time and going against the clock, albeit in a highly different context- far, far away from the realms of technology and cybersecurity.
However, after researching the topic for quite a while (a whole week, to be exact), I was quite astonished to find a highly limited number of articles and blogs written on the somewhat turbulent relationship between time and the fight against cybercrime.
Despite the rocky grounds cybersecurity treads on today, formulating quick, and fast-paced responses is a highly underrated aspect of the security infrastructure that most enterprises tend to overlook. Almost every other cybersecurity article that pops up on my timeline highlights the advancements made in technology and how far we’ve come, without acknowledging the vitality that each second has while in the midst of a cyberattack.
While it is true that most organizations invest a significant amount of time in mapping out what is known as a cybersecurity incident response plan, most enterprises fall short in understanding why a fast-paced response matters so much in an ever-evolving threat landscape.
However, before I dive into the vitality that time has in fighting against cyberattacks and breaches, I’d like to offer my readers a little more insight into the implications of an ever-evolving threat landscape implies and how time acts as an important agent when thrown into the mix.
The Ever-Evolving’ Threat Landscape Of Today
Since I’ve chosen to take an entirely time-centric approach to cybersecurity in the article, I’d like to make my readers aware of what the term ever-evolving’ implies within the technology framework.
Way back in 1987, in the aftermath of the notorious Morris worm virus, the first dedicated antivirus company came into existence- and hence marking the advent of the cybersecurity industry as we know it today.
Needless to say, the cybersecurity world has changed drastically. Long gone are the days when the only barrier enterprises needed was a reliable AV software, as cybercrimes continue to grow in sophistication, more and more organizations are relying on an all-encompassing cybersecurity infrastructure to protect them from the looming threat of a cyberattack or a data breach.
Taking this into account, the term ever-evolving suggests cybercrimes that continue to increase in both number and complexity. The current situation of cybersecurity dictates that the fight to secure an enterprise is an endless race between time, IT security teams and cybercriminals that grow stronger by the second.
As is the case with any evolution, cybercriminals and scammers are equipped with better tools and an even more valuable resource of experience garnered over the course of past successful breaches.
Another important aspect of the change accumulated in the cybersecurity threat landscape of today is that over the course of recent years, the entry points through which cybercriminals and scammers can break into’ an enterprise’s network. The ever-growing problem of an increased attack surface area becomes even more apparent when we take into account the fact that more and more organizations are undergoing a digital transformation, by turning to modern data storage technologies such as cloud computing.
Although in the course of recent years, there’s been an increase in more and more individuals relying on security measures such as VPNs with robust VPN protocols, there’s still plenty of reason to worry, because of the multiple loopholes created by technologies such as cloud computing.
Taking the unpredictable nature of the current cybercrime landscape into consideration, it comes off as no surprise that the 2019 CyberThreat Defense Report revealed that a whopping 8 out of 10 cybersecurity officers confessed to their company having faced a breach last year. Furthermore, the CSO’s surveyed in the report believed in a dark future for cybersecurity, since 7 out of eight cybersecurity leaders thought that their respective enterprises would be at the receiving end of a cyberattack.
The vitality of Time in Fighting Cybercrime
If I hadn’t made it clear already, perhaps the most significant tool that cybersecurity specialists can employ while fighting cybercrime is time. When it comes to combating the wide variety of threats facing organizations, the best way to get around is by formulating better incident response plans. In a best-case scenario, the incident response plan that an enterprise should account for each second that an organization undergoes an attack.
Perhaps the best way to make my readers aware of the vitality that time has is by reminding them how critical just a single minute can be from a technological perspective. On average, 900,000 people login to Facebook, 46200 posts are uploaded on Instagram and a whopping 70017 hours of Netflix are watched! Taking this into perspective, I’d like to reinforce the point made above and urge cybersecurity specialists to prioritize the clock above anything.
In a perfect world, enterprises could try and minimize the security loopholes that occur as a result of digitizing their data, by reducing their reliance on cloud computing and other similar technologies. The reality of the situation is a bit bleak, however, since the strategy is a bit impractical.
A more feasible and logistical approach to protecting an enterprise includes time-centric solutions such as comprehensive bot protection, with a primary focus on protecting against Distributed-denial-of-service attacks, since they happen to be on the rise in the current cybersecurity scene.
To Conclude:
At the end of the article, I can only reimburse what I’ve stated before- the time is always of the essence, but even more so when you’ve got a $120- $300 billion market at stake!
