Enhancing Business Security: Leveraging Real-Time Data

Today’s businesses face more threats than ever before. Disruptive new technologies, cyber-terrorism, and an increasingly connected world have all combined to make security a chief concern for companies of all sizes and industries.

While traditional security solutions like firewalls and intrusion detection software remain essential to any network, modern businesses need something more: real-time security data. By using real-time security data to identify threats before they become problems, companies can prevent potential disasters before they happen. In this blog post, we’ll explore ways that real-time security data can improve your business.

What is real-time data?

Real-time data is data that is created, captured and made available immediately for use. Instead of being stored for use at a later time, the data is available to users without any lag to support live real-time decision-making.

Real-time data is particularly valuable for firms. Across the enterprise, organizations use data in real-time to enhance customer service, manage products, and optimize operations. IT infrastructure is one of the most beneficial applications of real-time data. With real-time data, organizations can obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the workings of their complicated networks and improve security.

Improves security data and compliance

Today’s businesses face a wide array of regulatory compliance challenges. Whether you’re a financial institution, health care provider, or even a retailer, there are a lot of rules and regulations you must follow. Not only do these regulations protect consumers, but they also protect your business by setting standards for security and privacy compliance.

Security data and logs have historically been analyzed after an incident occurs when it is too late to prevent a breach and maintain compliance. Real-time security data, on the other hand, allows you to monitor your network in real-time and detect potential threats before they cause damage. This is essential for companies working in regulated industries like healthcare and finance, where data security and privacy are paramount. For example, real-time security data can detect suspicious traffic, unauthorized access attempts, or viruses, which could be indicators of malware or ransomware.

Enhances employee awareness and boosts security culture

Effective security awareness and training are essential to protecting your business from cyber threats. But did you know that many organizations only spend about two hours on security training per year per employee? This may sound like a lot, but it is likely nowhere near enough for most businesses.

Real-time security data enables you to identify anomalous activity that may indicate a threat or employee error, such as cutting and pasting sensitive data to a public network or attempting to log in with an incorrect or expired password. This allows you to investigate and rectify the situation before it becomes a real problem.

Real-time data can also help you identify which employees are engaging with security content and which are not. This can be particularly helpful in improving security culture by measuring which security topics employees are most interested in and letting you redirect resources to content that employees are not engaging with at all.

Identify emerging threats

Security data and logs have long been an effective way to review past threats and breaches, but they aren’t very good at predicting the future. Real-time security data, on the other hand, can help you identify emerging threats on your network and take proactive action to prevent them from becoming full-blown problems.

This can be particularly helpful in protecting against new malware and ransomware variants, which are constantly evolving and changing to avoid detection. For example, you may notice a new process running on your servers that wasn’t there before, or a process that you don’t recognize. Real-time security data can also help you identify slow network connections or spikes in network traffic.

Improve data breach prevention

Breaches can be devastating for businesses of all sizes, but they can also be incredibly costly to remediate. Unfortunately, many businesses are still operating with a dated approach to breach detection that relies on security logs to identify a breach after it has already occurred. This means that a breach could go undetected on your network for weeks or even months.

Real-time security data can help you overcome these challenges by creating a real-time data pipeline from your security systems, such as endpoint protection or SIEM, and your business data sources, such as HR, finance, or customer relationship management (CRM). This can help identify malicious activity and notify you before it becomes a breach. It can also let you know when critical business data is being accessed or altered so that you can take action to rectify the situation before misuse is discovered.

Get real-time security data insights for your business

Businesses today face more threats than ever before, and traditional security solutions are no longer enough. Real-time security data provides companies with the information they need to identify threats before they become problems. With real-time security data, you can protect your business networks and data like never before. Get expert advice and tailored security solutions from the cybersecurity experts at ThreatAdvice and keep your business secure from cyber-threats 24/7.