Active Cyber Defense

The future of our digital world is in peril from stealthy and agile cyber attackers who constantly refine and evolve their attack methods and targeting across all types of industries. They have highly sophisticated ecosystems to develop and share intelligence about targets and to monetize gains. Most of today’s static and reactive security defense mechanisms are ineffective against these sophisticated attackers - so what can you do? You need to become active.

We all know that having an active lifestyle can promote good health in our physical world. The same is true for the cyber defense world. However, being active in the cyber defense world doesn’t mean working up a sweat on a treadmill next to your administrator console. Being active means getting off your couch of static defenses and beefing up your cyber defenses to proactively disrupt and dismantle the cyber attacker’s kill chain. It means sharpening your senses through predictive cyber analytics – to foresee and forestall your adversaries’ next moves. Just as being healthy requires awareness of what you eat, your cyber health relies on context-awareness – knowing who is on your network, why they are on your network, what they are doing when and where. Being context-aware also means knowing the state of your cyber health by monitoring the pulse of your security posture – is your immune system up-to-speed? Can you respond quickly to indicators of compromise? Are your vulnerabilities patched? Can your defenses adapt to block new attack methods? All of these elements contribute to active cyber defense and your cyber health.
So where can you learn more about active cyber defenses? Download this comprehensive guide: 

http://activecyber.net/training-resources/downloads/

In this definitive guide, you will learn how Active Cyber Defenses (ACD) can transform your underlying security infrastructure from a static, fixed, and reactive model to an agile and proactive capability. This active defense capability is enabled by several strategic elements:
•The rapid fusion of cyber intelligence from threat information sources coupled with vulnerability
information, attack status, and asset state from other sensors.
•This fused threat and sensor data is mashed and mined by a cyber-analytics engine that outputs actionable intelligence.
•Actionable intelligence is pumped to the brain of an active cyber defense capability - a cyber-command and control (C3) system that directs and choreographs an intelligent network of security capabilities to constantly sense and respond to security events in real-time.
•Adaptive endpoint defenses are also enabled through a combination of trust mechanisms and
autonomous security capabilities.
•Deception capabilities are used in the intelligent network and at endpoints to fine-tune sensors, deflect attacks, and to inform threat information sources about the tactics of cyber attackers.

This ensemble of components, referred to as active cyber defenses, form a dynamic security umbrella that can be readily adapted to the cyber adversary’s tactics. Collectively, enterprises must evolve and advance protections quickly to a new era of active cyber defense… or face the consequences of inaction and be left behind in ruins.