The tech-hikers’ guide to outthinking hackers

Introduction

“Cybersecurity! Don’t talk to me about cybersecurity!” is what Marvin the Paranoid Android would say if his diodes stopped hurting. But Marvin also complained about performing “trivial tasks with a brain the size of a planet” — and one thing we can say about cybersecurity threat mitigation is that it is no trivial task.

Since the Internet entered our lives and workplaces, cybersecurity has been a game of attrition where the strategic moves continually evolve. The winner takes all and then some, and it can be a harsh ending if your organization is at the hard end of a cybersecurity attack. The cost of cybercrime damages is expected to reach $6 trillion by 2021.

The tools of the trade help cybercriminals reach those figures. Zero-day exploits are increasing, giving the hacker a hand up. Malware strains just keep on being created, adding more into the wild year after year. Data breaches seem never-ending. All the while, the security professional has to deal with this onslaught on a daily basis.

This evolutionary arms race we find ourselves in has to change. We need to outthink the hacker by being smarter.

The culture of being a cybercriminal

The cybercriminal should never be underestimated. For many, this is their day job, and cybercrime is now big business. According to Cybersecurity Ventures research, the business of cybercrime is now worth more than the global illegal drug trade. That is a compelling reason to stick with it for any aspiring hacker-to-be.

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Being a hacker means being part of a culture. If you’re a hacker, that’s your thing. Let’s get something straight: Being a hacker is not necessarily the same as being a cybercriminal. Hacking can be a vocation. Some companies even employ hackers to test their networks. But for the purposes of this (Read more...)