Proactive Security: Revolutionizing Enterprise Security Strategies

The Need for a New Approach: Proactive Security

Automotive icon Henry Ford’s famous quote, “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got,” applies not only to the manufacturing industry but also to enterprise cybersecurity. While CISOs traditionally invest in standard cybersecurity solutions like firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, and SIEM, these solutions only provide a measurable return on investment once an active threat targets an organization. In reality, most security solutions used today are effective only after a threat has already entered an organization’s IT environment or breached its defenses.

While these products serve a crucial purpose in combating creative threat actors, it’s essential for enterprises to be able to prevent more threats than they currently do. This necessitates a paradigm shift in approach, one that moves enterprise cybersecurity away from its traditional defensive posture. Omdia, a leading technology research firm, refers to this new approach as Proactive Security.

Defining Proactive Security

Omdia formally defines Proactive Security as technologies and services that enable organizations to seek out and mitigate likely threats and threat conditions before they pose a danger to the extended IT environment. Proactive Security empowers enterprises to address specific circumstances that create opportunities for threats, such as unknown IT assets, vulnerable software, and misconfigurations.

From a technological standpoint, Proactive Security encompasses well-established solution categories like patch management, cloud security posture management, and DevSecOps/pre-runtime security. However, emerging segments like risk-based vulnerability management, extended security posture management, and incident simulation and testing are gaining momentum. These solutions aim to interrupt attacks as early as possible, with the ultimate goal of preventing attacks altogether.

A continuous security protection model, endorsed by Omdia, combines traditional preventative and reactive approaches with Proactive Security. This model ensures that enterprises can stop active threats while also identifying and diffusing evolving threat conditions before they can be exploited.

A Shift in Philosophical Approach

Apart from the technological perspective, Proactive Security necessitates a philosophical shift in how enterprise cybersecurity decision-makers perceive successful security programs. It requires organizations to gain a comprehensive view of their attack surface, measure cybersecurity risk based on unique business context, and prioritize and remediate vulnerabilities programmatically.

This philosophical approach to Proactive Security not only enhances key processes related to defining and measuring cybersecurity risk but also enables organizations to consistently reduce cybersecurity risk in a demonstrable manner. Moreover, it supports broader business risk management efforts, aligning cybersecurity with overall business objectives and resilience.

Embracing Proactive Security

Omdia firmly believes that enterprises should increase their allocation of cybersecurity technology budgets for Proactive Security solutions. This shift will facilitate industry innovation and help organizations become more resilient. Proactive Security represents a much-needed technological approach to reducing cybersecurity risk and improving outcomes.

However, embracing Proactive Security will not be without challenges. It will require organizations to adapt and change significantly, but given the industry’s eagerness for a better approach to mitigate potential attacks, the era of Proactive Security is long overdue.

For more detailed information on Proactive Security and its importance, readers can refer to the Omdia research report titled “Fundamentals of Proactive Security” authored by analysts Eric Parizo and Andrew Braunberg (Omdia subscription required).

Keywords: Cybersecurity, Security, Enterprise Security, Proactive Security, Security Strategies, Revolutionizing Security