新一代网络安保浮出水面

    2011年曾被专家们视为“安全漏洞之年”。如今，2012年刚刚过去了2个月，但一系列轰动一时的黑客攻击事件已经使得2011年相形见绌。公司、政府机构遭到安全袭击的消息不绝于耳。

    因此，一个完全在意料之中的现象是，世界各地的组织如今都在围绕数据中心建立城墙和护城河，保护资产、信息和知识产权。尽管做起来或许有难度，但我依然要敦促信息技术和安全事务的管理者抬起头环顾四周，同时考虑不断变化的现实。现如今，考虑信息安全意味着需要考虑周围的整个世界。

    信息已经越过了写字楼的四堵墙，正在改善我们的生活和工作方式。无论身处何地，云计算和智能手机都能让我们获取重要信息。越来越多的产业都在产品和服务中植入了智能化信息。全世界数千百万计的传感器正在帮助世人更好地了解事物的运行和我们所处的环境。现在，大量产业都采用了嵌入式的技术，以前所未有的方式与我们紧密联系，而能源、零售和医疗保健只不过是冰山之一角而已。

    目前的挑战是，规模较大的组织每天需要监控数以亿计的事件，甚至包括一些发生在其业务边缘、数据中心之外的活动。肉眼凡胎没有能力筛选如此庞大的数据。

    迅速扩大的威胁覆盖面和来源为一种新型的安全防范方式铺平了道路，即依托于智能化信息的安保方式。智能安保体系采用先进的分析和自动化技术，从组织上下的数百个来源中收集信息。通过梳理源自网络、应用程序、用户活动和移动终端的数据，这种分析技术能够帮助企业更好地理解正常行为的基准，进而使其更迅速、更清晰地识别异常事件，以预测、防范并最低限度地减少其影响。

    毫无疑问，技术将继续向我们的生活渗透拓展，这种趋势为企业界提供了巨大的商机。展望未来，安全管理将深深植根于深入理解我们这个高度互联的生态体系，而不是依靠安全措施与外界相互隔绝。安全的性质正在发生改变，我们这些安全领域的从业者有责任帮助我们的不同的机构和行业理解这种变化。

    新型的安全观（其特征是更好的智能化信息、更少的信息储备，以及对我们周围世界的认识）能够帮助组织更好地保护今日之运作，布局明日之创新。能够着眼于周围世界、不断调整安保方式的企业将成为同行中的佼佼者。

    本文作者马克•范•扎德尔霍夫在战略、风险投资、商业开发和IT及安全营销领域拥有近20年的从业经历。马克目前在IBM安全系统部（IBM Security Systems）担任负责全球战略和产品管理的副总裁，安全系统部负责IBM公司全球软件产品的总体管理、预算和定位工作。马克在IBM的首要职责包括在并购、产品管理和软件及服务营销等领域扮演领导角色。马克曾经是荷兰Consul公司的高管成员之一，这家公司后来被出售给IBM公司。此后，在加盟IBM之前，他还从事过信息技术风险投资和战略咨询等方面的工作。马克现居于华盛顿特区。

    译者：任文科

    Already in the first two months of 2012, high profile hacks are threatening to make 2011, characterized by experts as "The Year of the Security Breach", seem tame. It's becoming a common occurrence to hear about companies and governments falling victim to security attacks.

    Therefore it isn't a surprise that today organizations around the world are focused on building up walls and moats around their data centers to protect their assets, information and intellectual property. But as hard it is might be to do, I urge IT and security mangers to lift their heads up and look around and consider a changing reality. Thinking about information security today means thinking about the world around you.

    Information has evolved beyond the four walls of the office and is improving the way we live and work. Cloud computing and smartphones let us access key information wherever we are. More of the world has built-in computerized intelligence in its products and services. Millions and millions of sensors have been deployed around the globe to drive better real-time insight to operations and conditions. Energy, retail and healthcare are just a few of the industries that are now embedded with technology and connected with us in ways that were never before possible.

    The challenge is that larger organizations need to monitor hundreds of millions of events per day, even activities that are happening on the edge of their business and outside the datacenter. There's no way humans can sift through that amount of data.

    The rapid pace of this expanding threat surface and sources paves the way for a new approach to security -- one that is based on intelligence. Security intelligence applies advanced analytics and automation technology to the collection of information from hundreds of sources across an organization. By combing through data from networks, applications, user activity and mobile endpoints, analytics can help firms better understand a baseline of normal behavior. Then analytics can help a firm more quickly and clearly flag abnormal events to predict, prevent and minimize the impact.

    There's no doubt that technology will continue to expand into our lives and offers great opportunity for our businesses. Going forward, security management is going to be rooted in better understanding our highly connected ecosystem, not by the isolation that the security can create. It's our role as security practitioners to educate our organizations and industries on security's changing nature.

    Having a new approach to security -- one defined by greater intelligence, fewer silos and awareness of the world around us -- can help organizations better protect their operations today and plan for tomorrow's innovation. The firms able to evolve their security style with an eye to world around us will be ahead of the pack.

    Marc van Zadelhoff has nearly 20 years of experience in strategy, venture capital, business development and marketing in the IT and security space. Currently, Marc is the VP, Worldwide Strategy and Product Management for IBM Security Systems –responsible for overall product management, budget and positioning for IBM's full software portfolio globally. Marc's prior responsibilities at IBM have included leadership roles in M&A, product management and marketing in both software and services. Marc was a member of the executive team of Dutch-based Consul before it sold to IBM and spent the rest of his pre-IBM years in IT venture capital and strategy consulting. Marc lives in Washington, DC.