The development of security intelligence and operations centers has become a priority for security leaders.
By Carlos Leschhorn*
Today's organizations around the world are more focused on security than ever before. Attacks on various businesses, government entities, transit networks, and critical infrastructure sites carry significant potential damage to both assets and brand reputation. Common threats such as workplace violence, terrorism, and natural disasters continue to be priorities, while cybersecurity risks have expanded in scope. These challenges demonstrate that the stakes are high, and as the impact on an organization increases, the need for real-time predictive response increases.
Today's businesses are beginning to recognize that outdated approaches to protecting their infrastructure, people, and data are no longer ideal. Evolving risks require precise monitoring that needs leaders to have access to the most critical data at the right time to protect what matters most. Therefore, more leaders are looking for new ways to modernize security and safety efforts, seeking to take a holistic approach to comprehensive risk management.
Data overload
The demand for digital transformation has opened the door to an avalanche of data. Think of all the connected devices that deliver data to your organization. There are probably hundreds, if not thousands, of compatible devices at any given time. Security and operations managers need modern ways to capture information from these devices and systems, correlate it, and then analyze it to make informed decisions.
The influx of data and connected devices provides enhanced capabilities, but it also presents great challenges. Remember, security devices and physical operations on the network are now potential cybersecurity risks. Therefore, security must be considered holistically, combining physical and IT security to get a better view of the threat scenario. This direction has to occur in all technological systems and also internally between departments.
In mission-critical environments, a comprehensive response enables full management of security and operational threats. However, typical security systems operate in silos and make it harder for security leaders to achieve any kind of intelligence and consistent decision-making. In these isolated environments, operators have to manually coordinate data from multiple systems, which constitutes a major barrier to automation and makes it more difficult to mitigate risks and situations.
Creating an Intelligence Center
The idea of the security and operations intelligence center is designed to address this challenge. This concept aggregates multiple systems into a single interface and exposes you to an analytical layer that results in the delivery of actionable intelligence.
Artificial intelligence and deep learning help stakeholders automatically identify the critical data needed to see what's happening in a company's domains and demonstrate how it affects the company as a whole. By unifying information in an automated way to protect and detect risks, there is a more substantial opportunity to perform a predictive threat model.
By gathering intelligence from systems such as video surveillance cameras, building systems, weather sensors, mobile devices, production systems, smart valves and more, operators can identify potential anomalies and manage and respond to situations more efficiently. This centralized approach allows information to be easily shared with outside agencies, employees, citizens, and first responders, which is especially valuable in the event of a security incident where rapid response is paramount. With a single view of the entire enterprise across disparate systems and technologies, organizations experience new levels of situational awareness, lower operating costs, and increased employee safety.
In addition, security leaders are empowered to be more efficient, effective, and proactive, all of which are necessary traits in today's business environment. Security is a complex challenge: organizations in both the public and private sectors must be vigilant on a daily basis. Today it is more critical than ever for a security leader to implement a coherent and cohesive security plan.
A smarter approach to security
The development of security intelligence and operations centers has become a priority for security leaders in their effort to achieve higher levels of visibility and control, reduce operating costs, and comply with regulations. These centralized operations centers also promote collaboration between various stakeholders and departments.
Empower employees at all skill levels to provide continuous incident visibility, detection, response, and management. Leaders are empowered to take this to another level by merging technologies, best practices and services to provide an extra layer of efficiency to operations.
Global companies operate in complex environments where opportunities, requirements and regulations can vary widely, change rapidly and evolve on a daily basis. If the year 2020 taught us anything, it is that adaptability is fundamental and that the ability to adopt changes quickly and effectively improves efficiency and operations. Embracing the idea of the security and operations intelligence center will allow you to be better positioned to protect everything that matters most and provide the peace of mind you so desperately need as you look to the future.
* Carlos E. Leschhorn, MSM-IB - VP of SIS Sales and Support Services – CALA/SPAIN | Situational Intelligence Solutions from Cognyte. [email protected]
