IT security professionals will tell you that the bulk of spending on cybersecurity in large organizations in recent years has been toward perimeter tools like firewalls, antivirus systems and signature-based digital gatekeeping systems. And yet the relentless pace of major data breaches has shown no signs of letting up.
Why? In part it’s because the perimeter itself is eroding. The benefits of mobility and round-the-clock productivity are simply too compelling for most organizations to ignore, and the result is that more and more devices are accessing enterprise networks. Organizations continue to outsource more functions to non-employee contractors and vendors, who often require network access to be effective. And the much-hyped “Internet of Things” (IoT) opens networks up to yet another huge class of “authorized devices,” which can be exploited to orchestrate significant mischief, as the recent hacker attack on the Internet infrastructure company Dyn demonstrated so decisively, achieving sustained disruptions of service from some of the world’s most prestigious online properties, including Netflix, Twitter, Amazon and Tumblr.
