Analytics and Big Data Continue to Benefit Security

Security is one of the most paramount concerns for any business or organization. Regardless of size or specific industry, no company of any kind in today’s world of accidental and malicious data breaches can afford to let its valuable stores of information go unprotected. If an organization makes such a mistake, the possibilities for catastrophic losses are virtually unlimited.

Analytics and big data tools and software platforms can play a significant role in the necessary fight against the chances of security breaches. It will behoove companies and organizations that have not already done so to look at how these solutions have been beneficial and how their usefulness is only bound to increase in the near future, and then begin searching for the ideal business intelligence software for their needs.

Data and analytics applications in IT security
Naturally, security begins in the IT departments of every business, which is where staff members labor to add safeguards to the infrastructure of the company. Big data and analytics serve well here. InformationWeek recently reported on a sizable example of this, as the major firms Cisco and OpenDNS are recruiting data scientists for their security teams to maximize the potential of analytics tools in this category. Dan Hubbard, chief technology officer at OpenDNS, elaborated on this.

“One of the goals was to rethink if you could restart a security research team, what would be the absolute things you have to have to be competitive?” Hubbard asked. He went on to state that his company augmented its team with scientists proficient in algorithms and graph theory, to apply their skills to security-focused analytics tools.

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The potential to see enormous gains
It is utterly without a doubt that analytics can bring significant advantages to the IT security departments of countless companies. Dark Reading reported on some of the most important of these. 

Arguably, the most valuable is discovering issues that are not easily detected on the surface. The source stated that leaks can occur on the paths data takes from one company to any given destination, whether it’s a client or a partner business, and security analytics tools can help uncover them. This can lead to IT staff asking the right questions about security and working properly to correct any problems. 

Additionally, security analytics tools allow companies to uncover breaches in policies that are leading to severe risks, so that they can be properly addressed.