Innovation is the fuel that primes the tech industry’s pump. Without innovation, big data collection, as well as data processing and analysis wouldn’t exist. There would be no cloud storage. In fact, without innovation, there wouldn’t even be a cloud. However, users do pay a price for technological innovations. The greater the tech, the more likely it is to be hacked. The key to protecting data is understanding the relationship between innovation and cybersecurity. Here are a few security approaches that leverage the tight relationship between innovation and threat mitigation.
Eyes on Entry Points
Hackers will use any means available to gain entry to computer networks. The first documented successful hack was a worm virus that effectively shut down the internet. This happened in 1988, when the internet was very small. Firewalls were developed and that seemed to solve the problem.
As the number of computers grew, and as the number of users increased and as the size of the internet wrapped around the globe, hackers figured out ways to enter systems using external technology like floppy discs. Email added another entry point. Firewalls and anti-virus programs helped make hacking a tiny bit more difficult for malicious actors.
Communication and Malware
The first computers were designed to solve problems and improve data collection. It wasn’t until the internet that computers were able to “speak” with one another. Once the internet was established, future innovations embraced communication. Communication requires exchange points and soon these points became the focus of hacks.
By 2008, estimates suggest that 500,000 new malware strategies attacked networks every month. Not all were successful, but the sheer deluge is cause for concern.
Innovative Cybersecurity
By the mid-2000s, IT specialists began to shift their attention from firewalls and other end-point solutions to third-wave cybersecurity solutions. These solutions are enacted once organizations realize that software contains flaws and exploitable errors. There is no perfect software. Once this hard reality is faced, organizations can turn their cybersecurity strategies toward predictive breach assessments that are powered by artificial intelligence. AI generates mitigating steps in real-time. Other innovative ways to secure digital assets include automated playbooks and streamlined vulnerability tests.
Third-wave cybersecurity isn’t as focused on security as it is on resilient networks. No network is impenetrable, but a cyber resilient network can absorb negative attacks and fight them off in real-time.