IT fragmentation is leaving businesses open to hackers as cyberattacks become ever more targeted, according to a report commissioned by Intel Security.
In a survey of security workers, 80% believed that a lack of integration and communication between disparate parts of the network was interfering with their ability to cope with attacks.
Jon Oltsik, senior principal analyst at the Enterprise Strategy Group which carried out the survey, said: "When it comes to incident detection and response, time has an ominous correlation to potential damage.
"The longer it takes an organization to identify, investigate and respond to a cyber-attack, the more likely it is that their actions won’t be enough to preclude a costly breach of sensitive data. With this in mind, CISOs should remember that collecting and processing attack data is a means toward action – improving threat detection and response effectiveness and efficiency."
Participants in the survey reported that they were averaging 78 security investigations during the last year, with a quarter involving targeted attacks in which the hacker profiles the victim in advance.
As such many of those questioned wanted better tools to combat the threats, with around half requiring better analytics tools, and a third desiring tools to work out what "normal" behaviour on a network was.
Others reported that expertise was a problem, with 40% calling for more training to improve knowledge and skills.
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"Just as the medical profession must deliver heart-attack patients to the hospital within a ‘golden hour’ to maximize likelihood of survival, the security industry must work towards reducing the time it takes organizations to detect and deflect attacks, before damage is inflicted," said Chris Young, general manager at Intel Security.
"This requires that we ask and answer tough questions on what is failing us, and evolve our thinking around how we do security."
