The proliferation of cybersecurity vendors complicates the integration of AI and data

The proliferation of cybersecurity vendors has become a major problem in the tech world.

As artificial intelligence and data integration advance, the growing number of security vendors complicates an already challenging landscape. As cyber threats become more sophisticated, a strategic and disciplined approach to security management is essential.

“One of the really remarkable things is that cybersecurity (was important) in many different places before,” he said. Savannah Peterson (pictured, left), host of the event for theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s live streaming studio. “We’re not just talking about on-premises or cloud services; we’re talking about edge services. Even though we have all these tools, it also makes it easier for bad actors to do cybercrime as a service.”

Peterson spoke to CUBE Research John Fourier (right) to the Black Hat USA Eventin an exclusive show on theCUBE. They discussed the complexities of cybersecurity, focusing on vendor proliferation, the dual role of AI, and the urgent need for a platform reset to effectively manage security tools and vulnerabilities.

Proliferation of cybersecurity vendors and the need for a platform reset

One of the most pressing issues in cybersecurity is the proliferation of cybersecurity vendors. With more than 3,700 vendors and 8,000 products available, organizations are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of security tools at their disposal, according to Furrier.

“I’ve talked to people in the industry. It’s very clear that the level of fatigue, I won’t say technical debt, but proliferation debt, means that they have so much stuff installed that they don’t even know who actually installed it. Patches aren’t being updated,” he said. “The main problem here is that the platform reset is going to happen and the proliferation is going to continue, and then the threats are just going to come in.”

AI and Generative AI are ready to play a transformative role When it comes to cybersecurity, AI offers unprecedented opportunities to improve data protection and threat detection. Real-time asset identification and discovery tools powered by AI can dramatically improve the ability to manage and secure vast amounts of data, according to Furrier.

“I think these discovery tools, asset discovery, are sort of in the governance realm, but they’re not really,” he said. “It’s more about prioritizing discovery and then remediating. That’s the goal and, again, a disciplined approach to the portfolio, risk management is involved, but resetting the foundations, I think, is going to be the main topic of discussion.”

But the rise of artificial intelligence also poses new challenges. The same technologies that strengthen security measures can be exploited by cybercriminals to execute more sophisticated attacks. For example, the prevalence of phishing emails has exploded: 17.8 million of these emails were registered in the last six months alone, and 62% of them bypassed existing security barriers.

“That’s the problem. Right now, there’s no vendor consolidation,” Furrier said. “Contrary to what people say, vendors aren’t consolidating because there are too many threats to fill when you have to fill these holes and these bad guys.”

The future of cybersecurity will likely involve a more integrated approach, where multiple vendors and solutions are seamlessly connected. create a coherent security ecosystemAs the industry evolves, the focus will be on designing systems that can adapt to new threats and effectively integrate various security tools.

“What’s going to happen with generative AI?” Furrier asked. “The opportunity that I see and that we talk to people about and that they think about is, ‘OK, how do I do end-to-end workflows? How do I vertically integrate the stack, leverage all the existing vendors and integrate them and use generative AI to create a glue layer around the data or the interactions?’ I think you’re going to start to see a real focus on the fact that we’re not going to be focused on maybe a handful of vendors.”

Here’s the full video discussion, part of SiliconANGLE and CUBE Research’s coverage of the Black Hat USA Event:

Photo: SiliconANGLE