Added Layer of Protection Can Be Critical in the Fight against Cyber Crime

It has been estimated that the costs associated with damage from cyber crime will soar to a staggering $6 trillion annually by the year 2021, just four years away. 

This figure represents a 100% increase from the approximate total reached in 2016. It is not hard to see that the problem is one which requires mobilization of all possible defenses. While spending on security methods which combat cyber crime totaled a mere $80 billion last year, that figure is expected to explode to the $1 trillion mark between now and 2021.

Do these alarming numbers indicate that we are actually losing the battle against cyber criminals and the damage they inflict? What more can realistically be done to stem the burgeoning tide of cyber crime? One powerful new ally in this ongoing conflict is cognitive security, and it just may be the innovative force which helps enterprises gain the upper hand against hacking, cyber risk and data breaches.

What is Cognitive Security and How it can Tip the Scales

In a nutshell, cognitive security is an approach which combines two related fields of study, human-generated security knowledge and enterprise security analytics, into a condensed whole. This combined approach then provides insights into security that can greatly enhance incident prevention as well as the speed and accuracy of incident response.

That's a mouthful of course, but what it means is that mountains of data from both structured and unstructured sources can be analyzed at high speed. This date can then provide highly useful information about attacks, both now and in the future. And best of all - it's a learning system, i.e. its intelligence and therefore its accuracy, grows over time with experience.

Here's how cognitive security will prove to be crucial in the fight against cyber crime:

• Proactive, not reactive: Whereas traditional security systems react to events already in progress, cognitive security systems are constantly analyzing and interpreting data, considering probabilities based on that information, and recommending actions based on those probabilities.
•  Unstructured data also evaluated: Previously, the only security data which could be evaluated was structured data made available by technology, which represented about 20% of the total possible security information. The other 80%, coming from the natural language that security analysts browse through and discuss interactively could not be integrated - until now. Identifying and extracting patterns from all this integrated data is where cognition comes into play. A cognitive system can 'read' books and magazines, and 'listen' to reports and other sources, to greatly add to its own store of knowledge about security attacks and incidents.
• Understanding the data: This involves organizing and interpreting the enormous volume of information. It enables cognitive security systems to provide explanations and insights, as well as the reasoning and justifications behind those conclusions.
• Continuous learning: As data accumulates and insights are gleaned from the data, conclusions have greater accuracy.

What all this means to the future of security can literally be a game-changer. Even though the diversity of malware today is tremendous, the fact remains that most of it is derived from related malware. This related malware will be detected by the pattern recognition capabilities that cognitive security excels at. For cyber criminals, it means that creating new malware that can avoid detection will become much more time-consuming and far more costly. The world of the cyber criminal is about to be confronted with a whole different economic reality.

Your business can take advantage of this new wave in IT security and stay a step ahead of hackers and cyber criminals. More information about security protection can be found on our services page. You can also contact us to arrange a consultation and find out how cognitive security can keep your organization safe from cyber criminals.