Recruiting a context-aware cyber army

Recent news that the UK government is looking to train army reserves to become cyber defence specialists is understandable.

Facts and figures paint a worrying picture for the government about the impact cyber attacks are having. One such study claimed cyber attacks hit government departments around 1,000 times per hour, while another said they cost the UK £27 billion each year. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9624655/Britain-is-target-of-up-to-1000-cyber-attacks-every-hour.html)

Prime Minister David Cameron and other members of the government have spoken about the importance of improving the nation’s cyber defences. Foreign Secretary William Hague described it as one of the “great challenges of our time” and one which the UK must confront.

Adding cyber skills to the military reservists seems like a good idea. The announcement about the move (http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240187408/UK-to-look-to-army-reserves-for-cyber-security-specialists) said reservists will be offered “enhanced training” to counter emerging cyber threats.

This is a lead that businesses can follow as well. By adding cyber specialists to their IT teams, businesses can improve their defences, helping them stop the types of attacks that can cause so much damage, both financially and in terms of reputation.

There is one aspect of the training that would give businesses an even bigger helping hand: using context as a weapon. It’s all very well knowing what the security threat is, but by adding context businesses can know so much more.

Which applications is the threat coming from? Where is it going? Which users? What sort of content is the threat being transmitted with? What is its deployment environment? Even information such as the location and type of device being used can be added, giving businesses a full picture of the threats it is facing.

With all this additional context a business can know where the weakness lies in its security infrastructure. Linking together all the information that is flowing across the network and data centre is the best way to fully understand what threats a business is facing and how to deal with them.

Adding context to your security infrastructure not only ensures your business remains protected from ever-changing threats, but also ensure genuine traffic gets through. This means workers can use the applications they need to without fear of disruption.