Security teams face major challenges in protecting complex technology stacks against increasingly sophisticated threats.
As businesses ramp up cloud investment, they’re having to master a wider range of tools while constrained by limited resources and a tightening talent pool.
According to Foundry’s 2023 Security Priorities Study1, 69% of security leaders say understanding which security tools and solutions fit best within their company is becoming more complex, while 53% cite a skills and knowledge shortage as their number one security operations center challenge.
Overall, in an era that promises accelerated digital transformation, security leaders remain concerned. The research found 88% of security leaders feel their organization falls short in addressing cyber risks.
Christopher Thatcher, Director of Cyber Security Sales at EPAM Systems, believes traditional Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) tools exacerbate the problem, overwhelming security teams through the sheer volume of alerts.
Meanwhile, he says current approaches to application security testing, whether static or dynamic, are creating a security debt they can never hope to keep up with. “Without context, they’re unable to really process or prioritize,” he adds.
The situation, Thatcher argues, demands a more pervasive security approach.
“We’re well past the point where security is a requirement at the inception of every project” he says. “It needs to be embedded in everything we do.”
This means considering risks and vulnerabilities right from conception and building in appropriate controls. This isn’t just safer but avoids the setbacks and budget overruns that frequently occur when a vulnerability is discovered later.
As more organizations adopt continuous development processes, they must increase the cadence of their security testing.
Continuous employee training is also key, as is federated identity and access management. This isn’t just about controlling access to corporate resources, it provides vital contextual data that security systems can use.
Most of all, today’s threat landscape requires cloud-native security tools built and optimized for today’s hybrid and cloud environments.
Solving the problem
Google SecOps goes beyond more traditional SIEM and Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) systems by enabling security teams to ingest all their security telemetry into a single, unified platform, and analyze it, in real time.
Google’s cloud-native platform gives analysts visibility across hybrid estate with proactive tools to find vulnerabilities and lock them down. It leverages sophisticated threat intelligence from Google, Mandiant and VirusTotal to detect suspicious behavior, while automated detection tools and remediation playbooks work as an effective triage, stemming the deluge of alerts.
Additionally, visualizations, AI insights and investigative views make it easier to be effective when serious threats are detected.
Powerful case-management tools also help teams prioritize and manage demanding workloads.
Crucially, integrated Generative AI features empower security teams with new capabilities. Gemini in Google SecOps can search through petabytes of security data, summarize findings, deliver effective insights, and even recommend remediative measures.
Where businesses struggle with limited resources, security providers such as EPAM systems can also provide support, including access to a deep pool of expertise on Google technologies and SecOps.
And as infrastructure develops and requirements change, so do EPAM’s solutions.
As Thatcher says, “We shift in the same direction as our clients are moving as the technology evolves.”
Discover how Google SecOps and EPAM’s expertise can transform your security operations today.
1Foundry, Security Priorities Study 2023, 9/11/23, https://resources.foundryco.com/download/security-priorities-executive-summary