Hackers are not invisible. Even the stealthiest and best camouflaged adversary leaves traces of their presence. The challenges for security teams are having skilled people that are equipped with the right tools they need to look in every corner of the business. Just as your home can be protected by alarms, security cameras and other sensors, the same goes for your data and systems.
Zlatko Hristov, the CEO of ThreatDefence, says many organisations lack the tools and personnel to detect attackers, achieve visibility and respond promptly. And a big part of that comes from a lack of visibility of what’s happening in their environment.
“In your house if you don't have a camera anyone can walk in and steal your television. In security it's the same. If you don't have tools to detect and record what’s happening hackers will come in, steal data and go quietly.”
Every organisation needs to invest in appropriate detection tools. These tools are valuable assets that are accessible to organisations of all sizes says Hristov. Managed service providers can help smaller organisations that don’t have the in-house resources to do this on their own. But this is also an area Hristov says he is trying to change.
“As a sovereign, Australian security company, we’re addressing the skill shortage by partnering with universities and sharing our technology with students. This is the same technology used by the world's largest organisations, with proper tools, simulations and AI assistant. Not only will this make students employable, but it also sparks interest and passion, uplifting cybersecurity capability for all technology teams.”
Hristov says many of the recent high-profile attacks that have been in the public eye could have either been prevented or had drastically lower impact had the right detection tools been in place. He says the 2022 breach at Uber could have been stopped had the company detected obvious indicators such as leaked credentials on the dark web and internal hacker activity. This would have saved Uber $200 million in breach response. Similarly, the attack on a large Australian telco, that resulted in about 10 million customer records being exposed, would have been prevented.
The opaque methods used by today’s threat actors leave digital footprints that can be detected when we are equipped with the right skills and tools. By working with passionate vendors and partners it’s possible to detect threats before they escalate. We can make the hackers clearly visible when we look for the right signs in the right places.
Access the full iTnews State of Security report: Here
