IBM cybersecurity expert in Des Moines: Firewalls aren’t enough anymore
PERRY BEEMAN May 11, 2016 | 3:19 pm
1 min read time
317 wordsAll Latest News, Business Record Insider, Innovation and EntrepreneurshipMichael Montecillo, an IBM cybersecurity expert, said in an interview Tuesday that companies facing today’s ever-worsening threats should first identify their critical systems.
Then they should realize this: Firewalls aren’t enough anymore, he added. An average company has 85 security tools from 45 vendors.
But that presents another challenge: “A lot of these tools don’t necessarily work together,” said Montecillo, IBM’s security services threat research and intelligence principal. That makes it important to be doing intelligence work to make sure everything is protected, he added.
“Security is a collaboration of a multitude of different things,” Montecillo said. “When you have that intelligence ability at the core of that, you are thinking about optimization across the board for all those things. The reality of security for businesses is it has to be tailored to the business. What are the particulars of your business that are imperative for you to be able to operate, for you to be able to grow? When you have that intelligence activity, you have the ability to mold and customize.”
Montecillo’s appearance at the Greater Des Moines Botanical Gardenwas part of a cyber summit arranged by Altoona-based LightEdge Solutions. He told attendees that the statistics on the growth of cyber threats, and the cost, are staggering. “We have real threats. We don’t just have gangs of kids breaking in for the thrill of it,” he said.
Consider:
- The black market sale of stolen data is a $14 billion business.
- There were 274 major breaches worldwide in 2015, and the number is growing.
- A half-billion personal records were stolen or lost in 2015. The cost of each breach ranged from $308,000 to more than $65 million. The average U.S. breach costs $6.5 million.
- On average, each individual record that is breached costs a company $154.
“You have to have the right tools in place,” Montecillo said. “People, process and technology are the key.”
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