With cyberattacks becoming more common not only in corporate setups but also for small and mid-sized businesses, we have the pressing task of protecting our assets from threats lurking online.
We are referring to malicious agents who are actively working to infiltrate our networks and devices, steal our data and identities, and ultimately profit from our losses. Trillions of dollars are lost every year under these circumstances and, in many cases, such unfortunate situations could be prevented.
And while threats are becoming more abundant and capable, our tools to counter them too. Big Data is one of those tools available to us that can be highly useful to prevent and fight back cybersecurity attacks.
From the cybersecurity perspective, there are arguments against Big Data, claiming that the availability of large volumes of private data could be used by the wrong actors to increase the effectiveness of their attacks. Yet, in good hands, the potential benefits for businesses are significantly greater.
In this article, we will explore how Big Data can improve cybersecurity in our organizations. But first, let’s begin with the bare basics.
What is Big Data?
The concept of Big Data illustrates the massive volume of potentially unstructured and disorganized data that an organization produces on a daily basis as a result of its operations.
The more technology we implement in our processes, the more data we produce. Most of the time, this data is simply ignored and remains unused, mostly because organizations do not have the means to make the most of it.
What Big Data aims to achieve is to actually structure this data, evaluate its veracity, and use it properly through smart analysis. The result comes in the form of highly valuable insights, discovered and interpreted by Big Data analysts and ML/AI solutions.
Big Data and Cybersecurity
Let’s go back to the word “insights”.
Big Data is allowing companies to obtain highly valuable insights that went undiscovered before the implementation of this approach to data analysis. In the context of cybersecurity, Big Data can help to create predictive models that effectively foresee potential threats, for example.
By evaluating data sources, a Big Data analyst can help us understand how future cyberattacks may take place in our network. This even includes monitoring employee activity, having a full picture before the attack takes place. Security concerns may be detected before they become serious by observing employee behavior through Big Data.
Another Big Data approach to cybersecurity is infrastructure penetration testing. By simulating attacks on the network, organizations gather big volumes of data that will be then used to have a full understanding of the infrastructure’s weaknesses and potential improvements.
Using this approach alongside powerful Machine Learning and AI solutions can be the key to a protected organization in tomorrow’s fast-paced environment. Besides a capable Big Data analyst, algorithmic resources can make obtained data into highly-actionable insights and strong cybersecurity mechanisms.
