Technically Speaking

“Trust but verify”:  a Russian proverb Ronald Reagan often used to characterize U.S.-Russia relations, especially regarding nuclear weapons. The Internet has made it clear that the “trust” part of the proverb may not work so well. Today, we may have to say “Never trust; only verify”.

Every security professional knows that the adversary has the advantage. Security professionals have to find every vulnerability (good luck with that) and remediate it, and the enemy only needs to find one vulnerability and exploit it. This asymmetry underlies their economic advantage: finding one vulnerability gives access to a huge number of systems. In addition, for those willing to forego their conscience and risk jail, it is possible to make large sums of money in a short time, even with a minimum of technical expertise.

You have heard it enough to make you aim a fire extinguisher at your firewall:  “compliance does not mean security”. Compliance work can consume up to 70% of security budgets in Federal government agencies, and it is common to spend more money identifying, documenting, and gaining approval for a remediation than the remediation itself costs.

Return on investment: is it worth the money? That is the central question in both government and industry when deciding on any procurement. Demonstrating ROI on cybersecurity products is notoriously difficult, and is one of the underlying reasons for the poor state of our nation’s cybersecurity posture.

To view the original blog from Appian, click here.

Autodesk made further strides into its quest to empower the technological transformation of the construction industry with its recent acquisition of BuildingConnected – a leader in preconstruction tools that help building owners and contractors streamline their operations and communicate better.