Streamlined incident reporting, secure mobile conferencing and anti-theft tools for mobile contacts are among the next generation of cybersecurity technology, according to a panel of experts at a National Defense Industrial Association event yesterday.
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Buoyed by the Defense Information Security Agency’s vision for a Joint Information Environment (Defense Daily, June 28), cyber technology will seek to integrate and secure devices from desktops to smartphones at the tactical edge. Consequently, emerging tools in cybersecurity will enhance streamlining processes and connectivity while remaining secure, panelists said.
Jim Hansen, executive vice president of PhishMe–a company that provides spear phishing simulations and training to Fortune 500 firms–said his company is working on creating an easier way for employees to report suspected instances of phishing.
“It can be 218 days before an attack is detected in unclassified civilian space,” he said.
Hansen said PhishMe hopes to provide a single button in Outlook that will automatically inform the IT department of a suspicious email and forward a copy of the message. This simple measure will lead to faster discovery, he said.
Vic Hyder, chief operating officer of Silent Circle, said his firm is developing a method for secure video conferencing through tablets and smart phones. Hyder said the strength of new devices means that his firm can accomplish what “couldn’t have been done even two years ago.”
The ubiquity of mobile devices also brings with it the challenge of lost or compromised information. Hyder said Silent Circle–a global encrypted communications service–is developing a safeguard to prevent contacts from being remotely swiped off of mobile devices.
Travis Rosiek, director of federal services at software firm FireEye, said his company is exploring ways to detect glitches in applications that unnecessarily expose users. For example, a user downloads a voice recorder app and at the end of each recording the app connects to the Internet so it can forward the voice memo. While that may be a helpful function for the everyday user, the app could expose a device with sensitive data.
Although the panelists described individual technologies, they recognized that the market is moving toward single suites of software that will solve multiple problems. Users “will see more and more of a one-stop shop for security,” Hyder said.
Rosiek said this trend–evident in the military’s JIE–will result in cost savings and the potential for more innovation in cybersecurity. However, he warned that aggressive consolidation could put too much information in one place.
“It’s a risk management decision at that point,” he said.