The Cisco 2015 Annual Security Report released which examines both threat intelligence and cybersecurity trends, reveals that organizations must adopt an ‘all hands on deck’ approach to defend against cyber attacks. Attackers have become more proficient at taking advantage of gaps in security to evade detection and conceal malicious activity. Defenders, namely, security teams, must be constantly improving their approach to protect their organization from these increasingly sophisticated cyber attack campaigns. These issues are further complicated by the geopolitical motivations of the attackers and conflicting requirements imposed by local laws with respect to data sovereignty, data localization and encryption.
The Cisco 2015 Annual Security Report is one of the preeminent security reports that examines the latest threat intelligence gathered by Cisco security experts, providing industry insights, trends and key findings revealing cybersecurity trends for 2015. The report also highlights data results from Cisco’s Security Capabilities Benchmark Study which examines the security posture of enterprises and their perceptions of their preparedness to defend themselves against cyber attacks. Geopolitical trends, global developments around data localization and the importance of making cybersecurity a boardroom topic are also discussed.
According to John N. Stewart, senior vice president, chief security and trust officer, Cisco, "Security needs an all hands on deck approach, where everybody contributes, from the board room to individual users. We used to worry about DoS, now we also worry about data destruction. We once worried about IP theft, now we worry about critical services failure. Our adversaries are increasingly proficient, exploit our weaknesses and hide their attacks in plain sight. Security must provide protection across the full attack continuum and technology must be bought that is designed and built with that in mind. Online services must be run with resiliency in mind, and all of these moves must happen now to tip the scales and protect our future. It requires leadership, cooperation, and accountability like never seen before in our industry.”
Jason Brvenik, Principal Engineer, Security Business Group, Cisco, says, “Attackers have become more proficient at taking advantage of security gaps. We observed that that 56% of all OpenSSL versions still remain vulnerable to Heartbleed and that major attacks are only leveraging 1% of high-urgency vulnerabilities at any given time. Despite this, we see less than half of the security teams surveyed using standard tools like patching and configuration management to help prevent security breaches. Even with leading security technology, excellence in process is required to protect organizations and users from increasingly sophisticated attacks and campaign."
