Face the Cyber AttackerFirst President George Washington once said, “To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace.” Two hundred and fifteen years later, they are still words to live by and can be applied in our fight against cybercrime. Hackers are currently winning the war–unless we want to lose future battles, something has to be done.

In a recent Dark Reading blog post, Amit Yoran–recently named President of RSA–gives pointers on how organizations and businesses can turn the tables on attackers. As a former incident response worker for the Department of Defense, Yoran was exposed firsthand to the most aggressive adversaries. As a result, he is well equipped to give the following advice on combatting today’s cybercriminals:

  • Businesses need to be armed with the most innovative technologies fit to combat advanced threats. Specifically, Yoran supports intelligence-driven security — a strategy that provides the visibility, analysis and action needed to help prevent inevitable breaches from causing irreparable damage or loss.
  • Security has evolved beyond just simply seeing an exploit attempt, and now requires pervasive visibility that identifies an entire sequence of activities, or an orchestrated, strategic campaign. Technology needs to keep pace with this need and facilitate organizations’ migration to next-generation computing platforms.
  • Businesses need to know everything they can about their environment, their activity, their risk and their vulnerability. Only then can a business truly adopt a more agile stance, one in which it can confidently say, “I am ready for anything that comes at me, even if I’ve never seen it before.”
  • Today’s advanced adversaries, in many cases, know businesses better than the businesses know themselves. As an industry and as individual organizations, it’s time to take a hard look in the mirror, and use what we see to reflect, deflect, and fight the enemy on a level playing field.

To read more details from Amit Yoran’s interview, see the full article on Dark Reading’s website.

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IT SECURITY SUPPORT: Blue Mountain Data Systems provides IT Security Support Services for Federal Civilian Agencies. Looking to find Vulnerability Scanning and Testing, Penetration Testing, Risk Assessment & FISMA Reporting for your Federal Agency? Call Paul Vesely at 703-502-3416.

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Face the Attacker…and Fight!

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