The ongoing global crisis brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a huge shift in society and how we conduct our daily lives. Working from home has become the norm in many industries—encouraged, if not mandated—children attend virtual classes and friends and families gather in virtual venues online. The rapid increase in virtual activity has raised security concerns as data volumes and rates have exploded. Humans simply cannot manage these torrents of data efficiently. A combination of new technologies that know better, react faster and become smarter may address this situation.
A confluence of developments in the rapidly expanding field of big data, with technologies developed in artificial intelligence (AI), will be combined with edge devices and the Internet of Things (IoT) to embody and drive security intelligence.
Figure 1—Architecture of Corporate Security Systems
The high-level architecture of the corporate security system is as illustrated in Figure 1. The layered architecture shows the division of tasks: a real-time layer provides operational insights and control, while an offline layer, driven by a variety of AI algorithms, provides deep analytical power and big data management for in-depth investigation and forensic analysis—taking raw input data and refactoring it into valuable security artefacts. Both layers described are driven from the data lake repository. The hybrid cloud is a natural hosting environment for this innovative security system, while edge devices represent a wide variety of fixed and mobile devices interconnected via an efficient mesh network.
The security intelligence cockpit (SIC), a distinctive and innovative feature of this architecture, straddles both layers. The SIC replaces typical security dashboards with a cockpit for security personnel, allowing fast reactions and short latencies.
Editor’s note: For further insights on this topic, read Louisa Saunier and Kemal A. Delic’s recent Journal article, “Next-Generation Security,” ISACA Journal, volume 5, 2020.