{"id":28235,"date":"2019-08-29T10:31:14","date_gmt":"2019-08-29T14:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/emagazine\/\/28235\/"},"modified":"2022-11-17T03:48:01","modified_gmt":"2022-11-17T08:48:01","slug":"cybersecurity-nothing-happens","status":"publish","type":"emagazine","link":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/secure-futures-magazine\/cybersecurity-nothing-happens\/28235\/","title":{"rendered":"If we do our job, nothing happens"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is a line in a 2019 keynote speech by Mikko Hypponen, the CRO of F-Secure<\/a> that goes something like this: \u201cIf we do our job in cybersecurity, then nothing happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s so true and made me think of the times when various corporate executives challenge their investments in cybersecurity, wanting to see something tangible. Hypponen made this point by asking the audience to look around at the conference room where these conversations are taking place, asking them if it\u2019s cleaned to their satisfaction. If so, perhaps they should fire their cleaning staff, because they\u2019re no longer needed.<\/p>\n

Cleaning up the virtual dirt<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nNow, the difference between your security engineering staff and your cleaners is obvious. You can\u2019t see all the virtual dirt and digital clutter that\u2019s building up across your network, the cruft of old software that needs updating and polishing, and the garbage that your users download onto their PCs that will leave them susceptible to attack. And that\u2019s part of the problem with cybersecurity: most things are invisible to mere mortals, and even specialists can\u2019t always agree on the best cyber-hygiene techniques.<\/p>\n

Most of us have an innate sense that mopping the floor before dusting the shelves above is the wrong way to go about cleaning the room. That\u2019s because we all understand (at least on a basic level) how gravity operates. But when it comes to cybersecurity, should we be changing our password regularly (some say yes, some say nay)? Or using complex strings of a certain length (some say 10 digits is fine, others say longer ones are needed)?<\/p>\n

Be prepared for a breach<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Hypponen ends his talk by saying that we must assume that we\u2019re all targets for someone, whether they\u2019re a hacker who\u2019s still in high school, or an international spy that\u2019s eager to get inside our company\u2019s network. He says:<\/p>\n

The times of building walls are over, because eventually someone will get inside our enterprise. Breach detection is key, and we all have to get better at it. <\/p>\n

Mikko Hypponen, <\/strong><\/p>

CRO, F-Secure<\/p><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n

I agree completely. We must get better at seeing the virtual dirt on our networks. Building a better or bigger wall won\u2019t stop everyone and will just foster a false sense of cyber-immunity. And just because nothing happens, this doesn\u2019t mean that cybersecurity folks aren\u2019t hard at work. They\u2019re the cleaners we don\u2019t ever see, unless one day they fail to clean up.<\/p>\n

This article represents the personal opinion of the author.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You wouldn\u2019t fire your cleaners if your office was spotless. The same\u2019s true of cybersecurity: we must get better at managing the virtual dirt on our networks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2517,"featured_media":46228,"template":"","coauthors":[3467],"class_list":{"0":"post-28235","1":"emagazine","2":"type-emagazine","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"emagazine-category-opinions","7":"emagazine-category-talent-business","8":"emagazine-tag-digital-clutter","9":"emagazine-tag-endpoint-security"},"hreflang":[{"hreflang":"x-default","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/secure-futures-magazine\/cybersecurity-nothing-happens\/28235\/"},{"hreflang":"en-us","url":"https:\/\/usa.kaspersky.com\/blog\/secure-futures-magazine\/cybersecurity-nothing-happens\/22010\/"},{"hreflang":"en-gb","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.uk\/blog\/secure-futures-magazine\/cybersecurity-nothing-happens\/20352\/"}],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/emagazine\/28235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/emagazine"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/emagazine"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2517"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=28235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}