A few days ago, I was spending some time in the office with my teams. It had been another long day and we were finally winding down and loosening up. As had become a bit of a tradition at the office on a Thursday, we were kicking back with some takeout and having a good laugh about some of the biggest misconceptions in the security industry.
In-between laughs, one of my pen testers told the group, “I think one of the biggest and funniest misconceptions there are about this whole thing is human hackers. I’ve spoken to quite a few people who think there’s this guy with this Anonymous-like mask on, typing code furiously into their computer.”
We all laughed. Someone from the social engineering team piped in: “Don’t forget the robotic voices! Can’t be a hacker or a cybercriminal if you don’t sound like a simulation.”
It’s true that many people believe that cyber criminals are who Hollywood tells us they are. Despite how relevant cybersecurity is to our everyday life, the knowledge in this area is far from where it needs to be. The truth is that many of the cyber attacks we experience, nowadays, are automated. I mean, why would you stay up late doing the dirty work when you have cutting-edge software to do the work for you?
In the same vein, we’re now using cybersecurity automation in the work we do to protect business systems and operations. There’s only so much humans can do, but automated security software and tools don’t have the same limitations.
When these are leveraged intelligently - with human input and understanding - cybersecurity automation becomes a useful weapon in our fight against cyber attacks.
IT’S A POWERFUL WAY OF ANALYSING YOUR THREAT INFORMATION
When it comes to the work we do as security specialists, data is everything. Any organisation that is trying to protect its operations needs data to make sure their protections are in line with their specific threats, risks, and vulnerabilities.
Cybersecurity automation meets this need by providing the raw computation power to decipher your threats and present them in the form of actionable insights. In order to be truly effective - and where the importance of choosing the right automation software comes in - this software needs to collect data across their security systems and attack vendors. Moreover, it also needs to correlate the data available out there on global risks and attacks.
YOU CAN AUTOMATE ATTACK DEFENCES/PROTECTIONS AS THEY OCCUR
In my opinion, cybersecurity automation is amazing because it has the ability to deploy and extend a protective cover over business systems without human input. It does this the minute - or the second - a threat is identified.
This type of technology is not only more advanced than people think but is incredibly intuitive. We now know that security automation has the power to predict how an attack is going to spread across a system. By doing so, these tools anticipate which areas of your system will be targeted and anticipates the attack at that location, usually stopping the attack right in its tracks.
It does all this without human teams having to run or control them.
IDENTIFYING EXISTING THREATS LURKING IN YOUR SYSTEMS
Another useful way cybersecurity automation supports your security strategies is by identifying any infections or threats within your system.
As mentioned above, cybersecurity automation allows you to analyse threat information and this naturally includes identifying an infected host in your environment or other telltale signs that something is amiss.
In order to present accurate information, in this regard, automation is essential. It analyses data and threat information humans lack the ability to do, simply because of the scale of information that needs to be considered.
LEVERAGE CYBERSECURITY AUTOMATION TO BOOST YOUR COMPANY’S RESILIENCE
Cybersecurity automation is fast becoming a highly advanced tool in a security specialist’s arsenal. For companies that lack the resources and support to leverage these capabilities, receiving guidance on what you need to do maybe one of the few things that stand in-between you and a disastrous data breach.
To find out how to unveil automation within your cybersecurity strategy, get in touch with our team of experts today.
