That Scarecrow Is Screwed

A recent report came out that talks about banks being in deep trouble as hackers are getting serious about accessing their systems.  This follows on the heels of a report that our energy grid has been compromised.  Everything in our lives seems to be in peril and we appear to be even more impotent every day.

The issue here is that security uses a fundamentally flawed approach.  All cybersecurity on the market today consists of static deployments of some software and a “hope and pray” attitude that those defenses are sufficient.

Guess what is NOT WORKING?!?

Hackers are not creepy little boys sitting in a basement anymore (well, ok, some of them are) – they are fulltime corporate efforts funded by large governments, organizations and companies devoted to bringing down more and more critical targets.  The idea of sticking a digital scarecrow in the field and hoping it keeps the threat away is not working anymore.

Proactive Services…And Not Just Reporting!

Think about our physical world and try to find ANYTHING that can take a continuous beating with ever more powerful weapons and not succumb.  If attackers have unlimited time, cracks will appear and the target will be taken.

The only difference online is the timeframe.  Whereas taking some mountain fortress might take years, the best static cyber-wall can be cracked in minutes.

What is needed are proactive services – experts constantly looking for new attacks and countering those attacks in real time.

What is NOT needed is more glorified reporting that may or may not discover a problem and, if the system happens to see something, provide no recourse.

Seriously, who thought that was a good plan?

We need to be able to respond to these hackers constantly, defeat them before they get anywhere and shut the door in their face (I would also like to beat them down in real time…but that discussion is for another day…).  We require a dynamic, fluid cyber-defense that is ever-changing, evolving and, finally, ahead of the attacks.

Of course, we need all of this without disrupting the people being protected.

Welcome to Bear.

Now let’s get to work.