Securing the Intelligent Edge from Evolving Attacks

Emerging from decades of automation, instrumentation, and connectivity, the intelligent edge is evolving into a revolutionary set of capabilities that are already converting some of the most comprehensive technology and communications businesses.

The traditional system perimeter has been replaced with different edge environments, including WAN, IoT, multi-cloud, home offices, the new device edge, to name a few. Every edge environment has its own set of unique risks and vulnerabilities. This is why they have grown to be a prime target for cybercriminals, shifting vital resources to strategically target and exploit rising network edge environments. Businesses require proper knowledge and adequate resources to protect themselves from these emerging new threats.

The Rise of the Intelligent Edge

Intelligent edge has emerged as one of the biggest trends impacting companies across industries. This resulted in the emergence of the distributed cloud, where ad hoc networks are formed dynamically by groups of endpoint tools operating a common virtual platform. This intelligent edge, also known as ‘intelligence at the edge,’ has enormous ramifications for connection between mobile and IoT devices and the rest of the network.

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According to Deloitte, the global intelligent edge market will hit $12 billion in 2021 by expanding 5G networks and hyper scale cloud. There is a great opportunity for businesses that can harness the potential of the intelligent edge. But, there are a lot of opportunities for cybercriminals to ply their trade in different ways.

What Businesses Can Do

Businesses must stay ahead of this new threat landscape requiring high-performance security solutions augmented with high-level detection, analysis, and response capabilities. Apart from using AI to enable an automated system that can identify threats and attacks before they happen, security teams can also utilize AI to document the behaviors of cybercriminal activity thoroughly. This can help detect an attack and even predict the attacker’s next moves. Moreover, it helps to stop their threat mid-attack before completing their mission or accomplishing their goals and taking proper countermeasures.

Since Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning systems are deeply integrated into network security systems, the capability of IT teams to make such playbooks can be soon turned into reality.

Read More: Why Cyber Resilience should be a Priority for Enterprises in 2021

Securing the Intelligent Edge

With technology evolving and providing new opportunities for companies, cybercriminals in the shadows are working on innovating new ways to exploit those new technologies. Also, as businesses implement unique security devices and methods, malicious leads will only become experts in their attack techniques, resulting in a constant game of one-upmanship. Intelligent malware is specifically designed to target these new tools, and new Edge Access Trojans are more recent threats CISOs have to deal with while securing the edge. Companies need to increase their security strategies across the infrastructure, leveraging Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) and behavioral analytics devices.

With the current rapid threat evolution, CISOs should stay current on the latest threat intelligence. Moreover, they must understand how the new technologies and network operations that their companies are deploying to improve efficiency could also have an unforeseen and permanent impact on cybersecurity.