As information security professionals prepare to descend upon San Francisco next week for the RSA Conference, I want to take a moment to reflect on how the nature of security threats has evolved since last year’s conference, as well as take a look at the challenges security professionals are facing in the year ahead.
Rarely a day goes by without hearing about the latest successful security breach. According to the 2016 Dell Security Annual Threat Report, malware attacks alone nearly doubled in 2015 to 8.19 billion attempts. While every year brings new, high-profile data breaches, cybercriminals went especially big in 2015, elevating both the magnitude of data breached and the size of organizations targeted. As in years past, these breaches succeeded because thieves found and exploited small holes in security programs.
Since last year’s RSA Conference, I’ve spent a lot of time traversing the globe meeting with customers and peers to not only share how Dell can help secure data in the ever-expanding mobile, cloud and Internet-of-Things world, but also talk with them about their biggest concerns and the constantly changing security threat environment. With that in mind, here are a couple of the conversations I’m excited to see explored at RSA next week.
Shapeshifting, Speed and Stealth Help Cyber Criminals Access Data
2015 was a landmark year for breaches across multiple industries, making it crucial for security professionals to learn from these hacks and re-examine their strategies. The attacks occurred with greater speed, heightened stealth and novel shapeshifting abilities, giving attackers limitless opportunities to target the latest zero-day vulnerabilities.
To help shed light on the top exploits of the year, earlier this week Dell unveiled the key findings of its 2016 Annual Threat Report based on data collected by the Dell SonicWALL Threat Research Team. The report also discusses the continued surge in SSL/TLS encryption, rise in malware for the Android ecosystem, and notable trends in malware attacks.
Evolving Sandboxing Techniques
As cybercriminals continue to evolve their methods, it’s critical that organizations not only respond to threats in a timely manner, but also adapt their security strategies to prevent future attacks. While many adaptive threat technologies focus on the need to detect and respond to today’s advanced threats, there is little focus on the growing need for a multi-engine approach to sandboxing. We need this adaptive sandboxing technique for quicker threat detection with faster response times. Stay tuned for more from Dell next week about this topic.
We’re looking forward to #RSAC this year and to reconnecting with our colleagues as we discuss how to stay one step ahead of cybercriminals. What conversations are you interested in having at RSA?
Please stop by the Dell booth to learn about the latest security solutions from Dell.
Location: South Expo Hall, Booth S1007.