Collaboration Is Needed In Cyber To Defeat Next Major Threat

There has been a call for the cyber security industry to collaborate more to combat against the next big cyber threats with some experts anticipating a major attack before Christmas. IT security experts commented below.

Javvad Malik, Security Advocate at AlienVault:

“We see many bad actors sharing tools, techniques, and processes when crafting new attacks. This is in addition to the dark web marketplaces where many cyber criminals sell, share, and exchange stolen data or credentials.

In a similar vein, it is imperative that organisations also share threat intelligence and threat data with each other in order to stay on top of the latest attacks. Knowing what attacks are likely to hit using which vectors can allow organisations the time needed to ramp up cyber protection, detection, and recovery procedures. It can also mean collaborating with analysts that monitor criminal operations across the web and dark web to spot where any corporate credentials or intellectual property may be traded.

It is worth bearing in mind that sharing threat data and collaborating with peers, while immensely beneficial, still requires an action plan to be put in place to mitigate against threats. As we saw in the WannaCry outbreak, the patch was available prior to the outbreak; yet many companies still remained vulnerable.”

Michael Patterson, CEO at Plixer:

 “Malware has won the battle to get inside IT networks and wreak havoc.  The new line of defense is the investigation of suspicious events. This means security teams need to save logs and flows for weeks or even months if possible.  They need the ability to investigate events – fast in order to compile the chain of events so that they can be mitigated immediately. These teams should also invest in best of breed log archiving and network traffic analytic systems which provide the ability to quickly pivot between systems during the investigation.   Ongoing collaboration with other companies, the government and organizations like SANs give IT investigators insight into what to look for and where new, dynamic malware is hiding and how it is evolving. Any hint of what may reveal malicious code helps to solve the problem sooner and help save some companies from calamitous events.”