Threat
management is “an approach to network security that integrates a
number of different approaches, designed to thwart threats before
they actually enter the system.”
Compared
to before, today effective threat management is highly essential
because enterprises face threats from external agents, internal
employees, business partners, activist groups to name a few, who
resort to methods like hacking, malware incorporation, physical
attacks, social tactics, privilege misuse and so on, to get hold of
highly confidential and sensitive business data. The data, which
includes personal staff details, client lists, salaries, bank account
details, marketing details and sales information, can jeopardize any
enterprise’s hard-earned reputation and goodwill if it falls into
wrong hands.
The
2012 Data Breach Investigations Report provides a clear picture of
the current state of affairs. As per the report, the number of
compromised records in 2011 was 174 million. The following are some
of the data breach statistics taken from the DBIR report.
• 98%
of the data breach incidents stemmed from external agents
• 58%
of all data theft tied to activist groups
• 81%
of the data breach incidents involved hacking while 69% utilized
malware incorporation
• 79%
of victims were targets of opportunity
• 85%
of breaches took weeks or more to discover
• 92%
of incidents were discovered by a third party
• 97%
of breaches were avoidable through simple or intermediate controls
• 96%
of victims subject to PCI DSS had not achieved compliance
• 96%
of attacks were not highly difficult
From
the above statistics, you can easily make out that the cyber
criminals are evolving rapidly with increased sophistication of
attack, as 96% of attacks were not highly difficult.
Hence,
enterprises must put in place effective threat
management solution
to defend themselves against today’s ever-present and pervasive
cyber-threats. Contrary to popular belief, firewalls that prevent
unauthorized intrusions into private networks, and virus scanners and
protection suites that monitor, filter, quarantine, and prevent virus
attacks are not enough on their own to protect information. Instead,
enterprises require a set of proper procedures and systems to counter
threat to information effectively.
Enterprises
can easily achieve this with advanced threat
management solutions that
come integrated with Security as well as Governance,
Risk and Compliance solutions.
Thus,
investing in a complete end-to-end information security solution that
provides better visibility into threats and risks from multiple
sources is necessary for enterprises looking to protect its sensitive
data.
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