‘Companies deploying advanced technologies to enhance threat hunting’
Hyderabad: With the growing cyber threats, organisations globally are not only looking at end-point detection and response but also network detection and response. There is a growing emphasis on deploying deception technologies to carry out threat hunting, Anshuman Sharma, head, Investigative Response, Asia Pacific and Japan, Verizon, tells Telangana Today in an interview. He also […]
Hyderabad: With the growing cyber threats, organisations globally are not only looking at end-point detection and response but also network detection and response. There is a growing emphasis on deploying deception technologies to carry out threat hunting, Anshuman Sharma, head, Investigative Response, Asia Pacific and Japan, Verizon, tells Telangana Today in an interview. He also shares the changing threat landscape during Covid times and the outlook. Excerpts-
Covid times
Cyberattacks have surged in the last 18 months. Around 85 per cent of the breaches involved the human element and this continues to be the leading factor. Phishing incidents are up post August 2020 using different means, as well as a surge in business email compromises. Ransomware attacks went up 10 per cent and had been among the top 10 threats consistently. Ransomware incidents primarily involved targeting data and mining the data. Organised cyber crimes have gone up significantly. Deception technologies are gaining prominence, which offer an effective approach to building security defences that detect threats early, where defenders use decoys and lures to mislead attackers.
Information sharing
Nations and organisations have started sharing information among peers as cybercrimes have become transnational. There is a lot of discussion to create a unified threat intelligence platform with focus on three aspects- inter departmental information exchange within nations, making globally relevant regulations and attaining consensus, and capacity/capability building. Nations have realised the importance of sharing threat perception on critical infrastructure owing to the growing threats in this space. India is learning from the world and developing its own cyber security strategy. The nation is also looking at learning the best practices from the US, particularly in the areas of Information and Communication Technology infrastructure and tackling online extremism.
Financial implications
Cyberattacks are leading to tangible financial losses. Studies show business email compromises (with a median of $30,000 per incident), corporate breaches ($30,000 per incident) and ransomware attacks (median of $1.2 million) are all signs of the magnitude of the vulnerability. Cost of incident response and external investigation ($4,00,000 per investigation) and legal charges ($55,000 per investigation) are adding up to the cost in tackling cyber threats.
Crypto forensics
Infrastructure of organisations has been targeted as part of crypto mining to use their resources. Certain countries have made crypto currencies legal. Many countries may be looking at doing that in the future. Crypto jacking and mining incidents have primarily happened where two-factor authentication was lacking.
Verizon’s solutions
We have seen a growth in demand for cyber security and threat intelligence services. Companies are also approaching us for proactive dark web hunting. Several enterprises have also started leveraging capabilities of artificial intelligence and machine learning for threat hunting. We are actively involved in incident response and forensics. Organisations have become proactive in tackling cyber threats as the threat landscape has changed due to work from home and hybrid work scenarios. E-commerce and all digital businesses are being proactive and are engaging cyber security companies upfront.
Skill scenario
Skill gap remains a key area to be addressed. However, advanced certifications are being offered in India and the skill gap can be addressed as the stakeholders are consciously making efforts to create fresh professionals and ensure upskilling those who are already working in this space. Skills related to information security, digital forensics, artificial intelligence, data science and cloud computing will need to be focused to ready the workforce for future challenges.
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