Have you ever watched a cat stalk its prey? First, it identifies a target and lies in wait, quietly, hidden from view, observing the behavior of its victim. Minutes can go by as it bides its time, just watching. The mouse or squirrel or bird continues to do its thing, seemingly oblivious to the fact that it’s being tracked.
Suddenly, the cat pounces, certain to claim its victim. However, more times than not, the prey scurries away just in time as if it knew the cat was lurking in the bushes the whole time. In an instant, a sure kill is averted as if the prey planned it that way all along.This game of cat and mouse is a back-and-forth battle that can change course at any time. You think the cat has the upper hand and, bang, the mouse escapes certain capture to live another day. Unless it doesn’t. Whoever stays one step ahead usually wins.
Cybersecurity today feels too much like a game of cat and mouse. Vendors create a signature of a known threat, identify it, and block it. But once exposed, attackers simply tweak some code and relaunch the attack. Security teams then need to react again, starting the process all over again. Wash, rinse, repeat.
Who is the cat and who is the mouse is a discussion for another day. But either way, it’s clear that the game is rigged against enterprise security professionals. Even if threat detectors catch an attack relatively early in the process, casualties are a given. There has to be a patient zero in order to stop future attacks. This puts security professionals on the defensive, reacting to emerging threats in order to mitigate the damage resulting from the inevitable successful attack.
This approach is expensive and ineffective. Security teams implement and manage myriad point solutions, each intended to address a specific security threat. Yet, success is defined not by attacks that are averted, but by how quickly and effectively successful attacks are contained.Here are some challenges that cybersecurity professionals face every day as a result of this never-ending game of cat and mouse.
The only way these challenges can be effectively addressed is by completely reimagining how enterprises approach web and email security. But what will that approach look like?Read more in our Definitive Guide to Internet Isolation .