How To Combat Cyber Criminals: Beat Them At Their Own Game

07.18.2018

Planting decoys and setting traps on your network to lure attackers is not a new concept. Deception technology creates a very sophisticated decoy environment—designed to look and act exactly like the real network and appear to be a valuable potential target for attackers. Recently, Acalvio took the idea of deception technology to the next level by extending the concept into the cloud.

What is Deception Technology?

There is no such thing as impenetrable cybersecurity. It is wise to operate from the assumption that your network will eventually be compromised by attackers. This allows you to prepare for an attack and identify potential areas of weakness.

While preventing cybercriminals from infiltrating your network in the first place would be ideal, what is even more important is how quickly you detect the unauthorized access. Attackers typically follow a common strategy to find vulnerable or valuable assets—and that’s where deception technology comes in handy.

According to a Research and Markets Global Deception Technology Market report, the global market for deception technology is projected to grow to more than $2.1 billion by the end of 2021. No legitimate users, applications, or processes should connect to the deception technology resources, which enables it to act as a very sensitive alarm system–instantly notifying you when suspicious activity occurs. Deception technology also gathers intelligence on your adversaries—engaging with attackers to understand the tools, techniques and processes they employ to provide valuable insight to help detect and prevent future attacks.

Deception Technology in the Cloud

There has been a migration in recent years by organizations to move networks, servers, applications and data into the cloud. Attackers realize this as well, which is why the cloud is the new frontline for cyber attacks. The launch of ShadowPlex Cloud from Acalvio takes the concept of deception technology out of the local data center and into the cloud environment—whether an organization is using Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

Deception technology has to appear realistic in order to work. It should be a seamless extension of the real network and network assets. Acalvio, for example, uses artificial intelligence to create a mix of scalable, cloud-native decoys, including infrastructure compute, services, and storage. It can also create application decoys, such as containers and Kubernetes clusters—all of the things an attacker would expect to find in a real cloud environment.

The Decoy

You should absolutely follow security best practices and deploy cybersecurity tools and processes in an effort to prevent unauthorized access or attacks on your network. However, you should also understand that there is no guarantee you will block all attacks, and there’s a pretty good chance your network will eventually be compromised.

Deception technology allows you to set a trap—providing a realistic, target-rich environment to snare attackers as they try to navigate around your network in search of valuable assets or sensitive data. As organizations move from local data centers to public and private cloud environments, cloud-based deception technology will be an important component of effective security strategy.

Contact Datasmith today to build your cybersecurity plan before you’re under attack.

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