Security and defense theory are inextricably entwined. Consider medieval castles. They were designed as a defensive mechanism that provided security to those within, most of whom were simply civilians hiding behind the walls for protection from invaders. Within cybersecurity, multiple concepts from defense and war theory can be applied to better address the cyber risks facing organizations. In fact, the term Bastion Host refers to a Bastion which has very militaristic connotations.

As the pandemic starts to fade, it can be easy to fall into a false sense of security. While there’s finally an end to COVID-19 insight, the cybersecurity pandemic rages on. 2020 was a record year for cybercrime, and the same threats will plague 2021. Amid the disruptions of 2020, many businesses embraced remote work, cloud services, and IoT technologies. These changes, in turn, led to a shifting cybersecurity landscape as cybercriminals adapted and new threats emerged.

Threat modelling is a process for identifying potential threats to an organization's network security and all the vulnerabilities that could be exploited by those threats. Most security protocols are reactive - threats are isolated and patched after they've been injected into a system. Threat modelling, on the other hand, is a proactive approach to cybersecurity, whereby potential threats are identified and anticipated.

It's one thing to detect a cyber attack. It's another to know what the attackers are trying to do, which tactics they are using, and what their next move is likely to be. Without that additional information, it's difficult to defend effectively against an attack. You can't reliably stop an attack if you are unable to put yourself in the mindset of the attackers. This is why threat intelligence plays a critical role in modern cybersecurity operations.

Cloud misconfigurations continue to be a serious concern for organizations, and the list of security incidents caused by the exposure of data from Saas and IaaS applications only continues to grow.