New research recommends a holistic approach to cybersecurity

The IDC InfoBrief calls for the adoption of a 'virtuous cycle' model as a way of closing these critical security gaps, incorporating prevention, detection, response, and healing. It calls for "a multipronged approach that includes establishing a security posture and proactively managing the access and assets, monitoring what is happening in the environment, and ensuring a fit-for-purpose remediation approach including backup and disaster recovery." The study also highlights AI as the solution for improved detection and response capabilities and continuous monitoring, as well as playing an integral part in the 'virtuous cycle', citing AI's ability to look for subtle changes in the behaviors of entities within a network.

"It's clear from this study that organizations need to adopt a holistic approach to improve their readiness," commented Christopher Kissel, Research Vice President of IDC's Security & Trust Products. "The solution is to create a virtuous cycle, leveraging AI to create an ecosystem across an entire organization able to continuously stress-test environments, give an instantaneous response, and determine if remediation is working."

"Security teams don't need more data, they need clear prioritization, and intelligent automation to lighten the load and this report sets that out in concrete terms," said John Allen, VP of Cyber Risk and Compliance at Darktrace. "Security professionals are overwhelmed with vulnerabilities, and they can't get to them all in time. At Darktrace we're committed to delivering an AI Loop that can provide continuous visibility, prioritized into meaningful actions for security teams, and harden weak points. That's how we're helping security teams get proactive."

Darktrace PREVENT™ is the third of four product families in Darktrace's Cyber AI Loop™ which also includes Darktrace DETECT and RESPOND™. The final part of Darktrace's Cyber AI Loop, Darktrace HEAL™, will go to market in 2023.

Commenting on the efficacy of PREVENT and its ability to augment an entire security ecosystem, Jim Webber, Vice President of Information Technology at Direct Federal Credit Union, said: "PREVENT is continuously looking for assets that live outside of our internal IT environment. With PREVENT constantly doing vulnerability testing on our behalf, I don't need worry about missing something - that is very reassuring."

*doc #EUR149649622, January 2023

IDC InfoBrief Methodology

In July 2022, IDC surveyed senior security professionals at 300 companies across Europe and the U.S., looking at where security professionals are challenged in implementing preventative security measures and the gaps in their security postures that they are struggling to fill. All organizations surveyed had over 500 employees. Individuals surveyed were predominantly IT directors, IT managers, IT security management specialists, CIOs and CTOs. The full IDC Infobrief can be viewed here.

About Darktrace

Darktrace (DARK.L), a global leader in cyber security artificial intelligence, delivers complete AI-powered solutions in its mission to free the world of cyber disruption. Breakthrough innovations from the Darktrace Cyber AI Research Centre in Cambridge, UK and its R&D center in The Hague, The Netherlands have resulted in over 125 patent applications filed and significant research published to contribute to the cyber security community. Darktrace's technology continuously learns and updates its knowledge of 'you' for an organization and applies that understanding to achieve an optimal state of cyber security. It is delivering the first-ever Cyber AI Loop, fuelling a continuous end-to-end security capability that can autonomously prevent, detect, and respond to novel, in-progress threats in real-time. Darktrace employs over 2,200 people around the world and protects over 8,100 organizations globally from advanced cyber threats. It was named one of TIME magazine's 'Most Influential Companies' in 2021.