Offense must be the new defense, RSA chief says

 

Connecting state and local government leaders

Cybersecurity is threatened by increasingly persistent and sophisticated threats, and the industry is at risk of failure if it doesn't change strategy, RSA's Art Coviello said.

SAN FRANCISCO — Warning that “we are at serious risk of failing,” RSA Executive Chairman Art Coviello said the IT security industry needs to go on the offensive.

“The harsh reality is that people in our line of work are going through hell in the last 12 months,” Coviello said Feb. 28 in his opening keynote at the annual RSA Conference.

Rather than the usual upbeat assessment of challenges and accomplishments in IT security that typically open the large cybersecurity conference, the tone for this year was set by the lyrics of the musical production number that opened the conference, a rendition of the Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” (including the line “but...you get what you need”).


Related stories:

Intelligent security and other unsolved mysteries targeted at RSA

Advanced threats: The enemy is already within


The security landscape today has been dominated over the past year by the assumption that IT systems already are or will be compromised and security efforts must shift to detecting and mitigating compromises and protecting data in compromised systems.

Coviello called for intelligence-driven security systems that leverage large amounts of security data to create a proactive defense, so that the inevitability of compromise does not necessarily mean the inevitable loss of data. He called current defensive postures a patchwork of point solutions and regulatory-based policies that need to be replaced with actionable intelligence.

RSA had a share of security hell when its systems were breached last year in a high-profile attack that resulted in the loss of some critical information about its security tools. “We hope that the attack on us will strengthen the sense of urgency and resolve for all of us,” Coviello said.

That resolve will be required to enable the data sharing needed to create actionable security intelligence. “The age of big data has arrived in security,” Coviello said.

Making use of that data remains a challenge, said Scott Charney, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Trustworthy Computing. “The problem is we have too much security data and we don’t know what to make of it,” he said at the conference. He added that the emergence of cloud computing could help in gathering analyzing that data to provide actionable intelligence.

Right now the bad guys are outpacing the security and IT industries with their flexible, cooperative models of operations. Security analysts need to adopt an offensive mindset in sharing and using data, Coviello said. He said there have been promising developments with the evolution of grassroots information-sharing networks.

Charney, in outlining advances made over the past decade at Microsoft in its Trustworthy Computing Initiative, laid out a similar vision in his look ahead at the future of the initiative. The future of security and privacy in a world in which vulnerabilities and exploits are inevitable lies in protecting data through the use of metadata associated with policies that will let creators and owners control data, he said.

The growth and change in security challenges facing the IT industry come at a time when cybersecurity is more important than ever, Coviello said.

“We are well past the tipping point where the real and digital worlds can be separated,” he said. “But trust in our digital world is at risk.”

That risk is increasing because of the slow response of the IT industry and its inability to act together, he warned.

 

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.