What It Is and What It Means for Your Business

Security First

Security first is a mindset.It’s thinking about your company’s security holistically from the ground up.

Security First

That means looking beyond technical considerations to see where security fits into your:

Business modelSoftware developmentPeople and hiring practicesPricingApproach to partnershipsMarketingResearch and innovation

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Security First

To do it right, security has to come first in everything you do. It can’t ever be an after thought.

Security First

Putting security first not only keeps your business safe, it also helps you disrupt your industry.

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Just think of how innovative companies are differentiating themselves by focusing on security and privacy.

Security First

Apple stands out as a great example.

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They’ve taken a very public and forward-thinking stance on security and privacy.

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“People would like you to believe you have to give up privacy to have AI do something for you, but we don’t buy that. It might take more work, it might take more thinking, but I don’t think we should throw our privacy away.”– Tim Cook

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Apple uses hardware protection of encryption keys, end-to-end encryption on iMessage and differential privacy.

And it’s more than words…

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And the strategy is working!Zero-day exploits for iOS are now going for big bucks.

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“…I applaud Apple for trying to improve

privacy within its business models…”

– Bruce Schneier, internationally renowned security technologist

“The majority of enterprises still

feel it is easier for them to secure

their enterprise data on the iOS

platform.”

– Dionisio Zumerle, Gartner

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The reactions Apple has been getting are very favorable.

While Apple is a great example of a company that’s getting security first right, most companies don’t.

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And that’s having a major impact in lots of ways.

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After Jeep Hack, Chrysler Recalls 1.4 Million Vehicles for Bug Fix

Target CEO Fired: Can You Be Fired If Your Company Is Hacked?

Ransomware attacks to quadruple in 2016, study finds

Source: Juniper Research

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Not only that, by 2020, the global cost of cyber crimes is expected to reach $2.5 trillion.

To help put things in perspective, let’s take a quick look at the

history of security threats.

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Little valuable data was online

Viruses weren’t a real threat

Crypto was for academics and geeks

1980s & 1990s

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, there really wasn’t much going on.

2008 – 2016 Present Day2000s

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1980s & 1990s

By the 2000s, things had changed.We had entered the age of weaponizedmalware platforms.

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2008 – 2016 Present Day2000s1980s & 1990s

Stuxnet attacks Iranian enrichment

Modular, updatable and extensible malware

Botnets as a service2000s

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2008 –2016

And since 2008, we’ve seen an onslaught of security mega breaches...

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2008 – 2016 Present Day2000s1980s & 1990s

Anthem: Hacked Database Included 78.8 Million People

Digitization of everything

Post-Snowden privacy mindset

End-to-end encryption in WhatsApp

Rise of blockchain and Bitcoin

2008 – 2016 Present Day2000s1980s & 1990s

Along with a variety of other important changes.

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2008 –2016

Differential privacy in mainstream products

Blockchains everywhere

Passwordless authentication

Ransomware

IoT DDoS attacks

Present Day

2008 – 2016 Present Day2000s1980s & 1990s

Fast forward to present day, and the changes keep coming.

Security First

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Looking ahead at the intersection of security and artificial intelligence (AI), there will be challengesand opportunities.

The challenges will be in terms of AI safety and security, with hackers potentially able to…

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Convince a self-driving car to swerve into oncoming traffic.

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Trick a bot into thinking that someone else requested a transaction.

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Or make an industrial system think that it’s not overheating.

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There will also be opportunities to utilize AI to increase cyber security to...

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Monitor and detect events at “beyond human”

scale.

Remove human error from

writing and patching code.

Human-like pattern matching

for access authorization.

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Automated detection, evaluation and patching.

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The future is arriving now:

So what can you do to help your company adopt a security first mindset?

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Here are three ideas to start with:

1 Make security decisions early and often.

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Build security into every facet of your business.2

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Compliance is table stakes. Go well beyond security basics.3

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Last but not least, keep in mind that (good) security is complex and that attackers are adaptive and don’t play by the rules.

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Want to learn more about

security first?

Security First

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