Dealing with the Unknowns

The bridge between finding unknown threats and acting upon the right ones lies in an effective security posture. Here are practical recommendations we devised based on our survey findings for you to consider:

Base security budgeting on measured security outcomes with practical strategies coupled with cyber insurance and risk assessments to guide your procurement, strategy, and management decisions.

The only way to understand the underlying security needs of a business case is to collaborate across siloes – between IT, Networking, Security, and Compliance groups.

There are proven processes that organizations can employ to reduce their exposure and extent of breaches. Prepare with drills; employ rigorous investigative methods; and know the most expedient methods of recovery.

ML, AI and more automation should be able to boost security efforts exponentially – and next year we need to see more respondents in the “completely reliant” phase of implementation and practice. Cisco employs machine learning technology in various security products including Advanced Malware Protection, Umbrella, Stealthwatch and Cisco Threat Response.

Build a security operations Center (SOC) to manage breach response in organizations of all sizes.

Cloud security can help with the unknown. Ninety one percent agree that utilizing cloud security increased visibility into the network. Cisco Umbrella is cloud-delivered security that blocks users from connecting to known and suspected malicious domains, IPs, and URLs, whether users are on or off the enterprise network.

Secure data centers and multi-cloud ecosystems with integrated solutions such as the Cisco Secure Data Center solution featuring visibility, segmentation, and threat detection from Tetration, Stealthwatch, and the NGFW.

Address the number one threat vector with phishing protection, advanced spam filtering, and defense against Business Email Compromised with DMARC; check out Cisco Email Security.

Endpoint security helps address unknown threats on user devices; try Cisco Advanced Malware Protection for Endpoints also available on our web, email, cloud, and network security solutions, creating an environment of products that work together for more effective and efficient threat protection.

Gain fast threat detection, highly secure access, and software-defined segmentation with Cisco’s Network Visibility and Segmentation which combines Cisco Stealthwatch Enterprise, the Cisco Identity Services Engine, and Cisco TrustSec technology.

Trusted access is a critical component of security. Duo verifies user trust (confirming a user is who they say they are) using its best- in-class adaptive multi-factor authentication (MFA) solution.

“It can seem an arms race at times to figure out how to keep in front of malicious hackers, but the way I look at what’s coming around the corner is that you follow where the business is going in terms of new techniques and technology, and that’s where you are going to see the gaps."

“Sometimes CISOs have used fear to drive some of the budget investment. What we prefer to look at is: What is the risk to the business? There are all levels of acceptable risk, and so we focus on where there is the highest risk to the company. We’re very fortunate that Cisco takes security very seriously and invests in that foundational architecture to best prepare us."

Marisa Chancellor
Senior Director, Security & Trust Organization, Cisco