In Lewis Carrol's Through the Looking Glass, the Red Queen tells Alice, "It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place." The "Red Queen" evolutionary hypothesis extends this idea, holding that predators and their prey must continually evolve to preserve the status quo. A similar relationship exists in the fast-paced cyber world. Security must constantly advance, adapt, and evolve to stay one step ahead of hackers and cyber threats.
Related Articles Buy security products from reliable companies to get the best security solution (http://www.articlesbase.com/cell-phones-articles/buy-security-products-from-reliable-companies-to-get-the-best-security-solution-6581749.html) Security Solutions and Technologies Company in india (http://www.articlesbase.com/information-technology-articles/security-solutions-and-technologies-company-in-india-3235297.html) VSG- Providing Client Centered Security Solutions (http://www.articlesbase.com/customer-service-articles/vsg-providing-client-centered-security-solutions-5749962.html) Hire a reputable company to get effective and unique Mobile Security Solution (http://www.articlesbase.com/software-articles/hire-a-reputable-company-to-get-effective-and-unique-mobile-security-solution-6483390.html) Government agencies are no longer only battling a rogue individual trying to "brute force" a firewall password or hack a single perimeter system. Today, Advanced Persistent Threats (APT) – organized cyber criminals and nation states that use continual, persistent means to identify security gaps – have led to a skyrocketing number of attacks. In 2012 alone, cyber attacks increased 42 percent.
Let me provide an example of a sophisticated cyber attack that also illustrates proactive cyber security defense and the evolving nature of the cyber environment:
A hacker develops a computer virus with a mutating code that will help it escape anti-virus detection. When the virus infects a new file, the result is that the next generation of virus will never look like current generation. The mutated code will have the same functionality as the original, but the resulting binary representation in the mutated virus will typically be completely different from the original. The virus' malevolent function would remain the same, but the way the code was restructured allowed it to "disguise itself" and escape detection.
Mutating code does not necessarily protect a virus from analysis and detection, though. Not only are there now defensive solutions to detect this evolving malware, but cybersecurity experts have adopted this concept into Moving Target Defense (MTD). MTD involves diversifying the configuration (http://www.lgsinnovations.com) of a system to obfuscate the location of its vulnerabilities.
Polymorphic code shuffling is another example of cutting-edge software protection research. This technique involves producing variants of a program with the same functionality by altering the order of blocks of code. If a vulnerability is discovered, it remains segmented in one piece of software instead of across the entire system.
Government agencies need to be proactive in adopting the latest cybersecurity mitigation approaches and technologies to protect their sensitive data. The Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) controls are a great baseline security measure, but agencies are recognizing the need to elevate beyond static snapshot pictures of their security posture.
With a proactive mindset and focus on constant innovation, cyber defenders can continue to develop solutions to ensure the security of our nation's most important and sensitive information.
Source: Cybersecurity: Striving to Keep Up (http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/cybersecurity-striving-to-keep-up-6737213.html)