Tech Insight: Andy Solterbeck, Cylance Asia Pacific

What’s the next big disruptive play in the technology sectors and what impact will it have?

As technology sectors continue to introduce smarter, quicker and cheaper ways of doing things, the most disruptive technologies have brought questions around the generation and management of vast amounts of data. The most notable being the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) and what Gartner has dubbed the ‘algorithmic enterprise’.

But this environment is increasing the cyber-attack surface and many potential introduced threats are currently unknown. We will not know until technologies such as the IoT become more ubiquitous. Here, IoT devices and communication consolidators are the target as older techniques are being modified for these new platforms including siphoning and theft of data, manipulation of data and zombisation and weaponisation.

With newly developed and resource-constrained systems, many previously managed attacks will find new opportunities to operate. This is inevitable and will likely relate to the sheer number of connected devices and their physical security.

What are your customers demanding of you now that they weren’t 12 months ago? And what are you anticipating for 2017?

Cybersecurity, in all its aspects, is much more important now than it was even 12 months ago. There are more threats that have become nearly impossible to manage using traditional security tools. Now, the ability to predict and prevent a malicious file before it has had a chance to execute is changing the security landscape.

Old cybersecurity techniques using binary matching signatures and behavioural analytics, such as sandboxing, will go the way of the dinosaur as organisations realise that these are simply not effective against the scale of modern cyber threats. But most businesses don’t have the expertise, resources or budget to manage a full-scale IT security strategy internally. Moving towards a ‘predict and prevent’ approach to endpoint security and away from the outdated ‘detect and respond’ tactic, which requires full-time threat monitoring, will enable businesses to redirect valuable time and budget to ensuring a strong cybersecurity strategy.

What innovative technologies do you see emerging in your solution categories in 2017, and how will they help your customers?

The most important emerging technology in the cybersecurity space is the unique application of AI and machine learning for predicting and preventing attacks at the endpoint. Its logic is largely algorithmic-based and, when coupled with AI’s predictive nature, offers businesses five unique attributes that can rise to meet the challenge of security in the IoT. They are: what used to take larger data sets can now done with comparably tiny algorithms, leaving behind a smaller footprint; algorithms enable quicker analysis than sifting through large databases; AI can be used at all layers of communication, meaning its processes are much more effective in predicting and preventing cyber attacks; AI-based solutions are better designed to meet the projected scale and rising demand of the IoT; and fewer updates are required as AI-based logic maintains a longer life span before an update is needed.

Andy Solterbeck is Vice President Asia Pacific at Cylance. He spearheaded the company’s launch from Australia into Asia Pacific and drives strategy and go-to-market for the region. Prior to this role, he held senior technical management roles at Telstra, RSA and SafeNet.