In recent years, India has emerged as a new favourite destination for hackers due to its expanding digital footprint. “Businesses now understand that to create a more resilient future, it is necessary to discover security gaps, and fix them,” Tushar Haralkar, security software technical sales leader, IBM Technology Sales, India & South Asia, tells Sudhir Chowdhary in a recent interview. Excerpts:
Is automation the future of cybersecurity?
Cybersecurity has risen to the top of corporate agendas as companies grapple with cyber threats. In fact, a Gartner research suggests 88% of boards now view cybersecurity as a business risk rather than just a technical issue for IT. AI is changing the game by analysing massive quantities of risk data to reduce response times and augment under-resourced security operations. As cyber attacks grow in volume and complexity, AI is helping under-resourced security operations (SecOps) analysts stay ahead of threats. Curating threat intelligence from millions of research papers, blogs and news stories, machine learning and natural language processing provide rapid insights to cut through the noise of daily alerts, drastically reducing response times. Therefore, cybersecurity automation is critical for achieving efficiency and reducing human error, particularly when third parties are involved.
How can security leaders implement cybersecurity automation in SecOps?
With pre-determined courses of action, cybersecurity automation enables businesses to prioritise risks and respond automatically to some cyber attacks. This cuts human intervention and reaction time while addressing security concerns. Businesses are starting to understand that to create a more resilient future, it is necessary to examine themselves, discover security gaps, and fix them. By automating repeated behaviours, automation in SecOps reduces the workload for cybersecurity firms, enhancing SecOps workflow and increasing productivity.
How will IBM’s recent investments in Asia Pacific help organisations become more secure?
IBM’s strategy is to put security everywhere, so that organisations can thrive anywhere. IBM Security ensu-res an integrated portfolio of security products and services, infused with AI and a modern approach using zero trust principles in helping clients succeed in the face of uncertainty.
IBM’s recent investment of Randori Attack surface management (ASM) solution gives proactive risk visibility by bringing in an attacker’s point-of-view that helps clients continuously identify external facing assets (both on-premise and in the cloud) and prioritize those which pose the greatest risk. Given the exponential growth in exposure points due to the remote and hybrid working models, the continuous discovery, inventory, classification, and monitoring of an enterprise’s IT infrastructure is mission critical – which IBM is helping clients do with endpoint security solutions like ReaQta and QRadar XDR.
IBM has invested significantly in building a security command centre to help businesses across the APAC region prepare for and manage cyber attacks. The IBM Security Command Centre is designed to equip everyone — from C-suite through technical staff — with cybersecurity response techniques through simulated cyber attacks.
What are the three security trends CISOs should watch out for in 2023?
CISOs should continue to strategically plan their cybersecurity architecture to lower the risk of large breaches. Some of the most critical cybersecurity trends to keep an eye on in 2023 are:
Securing hybrid cloud: Embrace hybrid multi-cloud with confidence and include security at each step of your cloud journey;
AI and automation are boosting defenders: Teams working in cybersecurity can benefit from increased insights, efficiency, and economies of scale by implementing AI-powered automation;
Integration of XDR (Extended detection and response) and Zero Trust strategies: Cyber resilience is increased by Zero Trust and XDR security by making trust an operational variable.