Automation Is Key In A Digital World

In today's security landscape it can be challenging to see the wood from the trees; after all, how can you set policies and budgets when you’re unable to see the size of the problem? While some organisations view automation as a simple way to take the burden off internal IT teams’ and their day to day tasks, greater benefits come from its ability to predict, monitor, and manage attacks before the end-user experience suffers…

UK Cyber-Security is big business £27 billion. That is what cyber-crime cost UK businesses in 2018.

As high-profile names such as British Airways and Marriott suffer data breaches, stark warnings are issued that NO organisation is safe as the cyber-security industry continues to grow and advancements in threats evolve. The UK cyber-security market alone is worth £5 billion and is widely regarded as the largest in Europe - and despite generally flat IT budgets, the increasing threat of cyber-attacks has led to higher security spending in both the Public and Private sectors.

However, the wide range of products on the market means IT security has become a patchwork quilt of software and solutions, leaving organisations to decipher how these can be stitched together, and where the potential holes may be.

A holistic approach using automation

A robust cyber-security posture can be achieved through a holistic approach that utilises service automation. This consists of end-user education supported by processes, security best practices, governance, and a culture of security as a shared responsibility. 

Most importantly, however, is the inclusion of a multi-layered and integrated security solution which utilises predictive intelligence-based threat detection and automated incident response. This sounds overwhelming, but factoring automation into a cyber-security strategy can alleviate many of the pains associated with the granular and more complex elements of incident monitoring.

Integrating automation into your strategy

If you haven’t yet integrated automation into your strategy, consider the benefits:

• Enhanced threat intelligence: Issues can be identified and analysed in real-time, allowing greater opportunity to react to intelligent threats and stop potential incidents.
• Reduces manual processes: Data analysis can be a headache, but automation can address the cyber-security skills shortage within IT departments reported by many organisations.
• Granular reporting: Instead of spending valuable time gathering and sorting through metrics and reports, automation gives clear visibility of your security posture through daily, weekly, or monthly reports.
• Integration with existing tools: Enable enhanced and automated incident response by integrating your disparate security tools and reduce the burden of managing multiple systems.
• Speed of response to security events: Manual analysis of security incidents can take hours, if not days. However, an automation platform can collect, analyse, and report on the activity in less time.
• Cost savings: Not necessarily outright, but more efficient systems can increase staff productivity and reduce operational costs.
• Minimal damage from attacks: Automation can assist with incident response almost immediately, however when people do need to be involved, they'll have all the most crucial information and data so that they can respond at optimal efficiencies.

The most successful threats are based on the exploitation of common vulnerabilities, and despite many misconceptions, automation is an ideal tool for streamlining and strengthening the incident response process and creating a better line of defence.

For information on Nasstar’s Cyber Security as a Service or to talk to us about service automation and management, please contact us here.