Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

Back before live security video feeds in homes, people would walk around at night checking to make sure they locked every window and door. They took these precautions because they knew that a single open lock gave burglars an opportunity to steal from them. For organizations, vulnerability management programs are a way to lock the doors against cybercriminals.

Compliance is not, nor has it ever been, security. Compliance is the spellcheck of the security world. Security is the work that people do every day to implement, enforce, and monitor the controls that protect systems, networks, applications, devices, users, and data. Compliance is the process of reviewing security work to ensure that it functions as intended. Compliance is an important component of an organization’s security posture.

When Heathrow, Brussels, and Berlin airports suffered a cyber attack that disrupted their check-in and baggage systems, the fallout was immediate. Flights were canceled, queues stretched through terminals, and staff scrambled to switch to manual processes. For some of Europe’s busiest hubs, this was more than an inconvenience. It was a reminder that disruption, not data theft, is often the attacker’s goal.

In today’s data-driven world, CISOs and senior leadership need to prove that their security programs mitigate risk. Just like grades theoretically quantify how well students understand material their teachers present, cybersecurity metrics quantify your security controls’ effectiveness. As the threat landscape becomes more complex, security teams struggle to identify the metrics that best showcase their value.

Phishing threats remain one of the most common and effective attack methods. Research shows it contributes to over 34% of confirmed breaches. The financial impact is significant as well, with credential-related breaches averaging $4.76 million per incident. And despite years of security awareness training, nearly a third of employees still click on simulated phishing emails. Why does phishing work so well? Attackers exploit gaps in visibility, speed, and user behavior.

Imagine security data and analytics like a carnival’s hall of mirrors. From convex mirrors that show you a shorter, squatter version of something to the concave mirrors that show a highly magnified image, you see the same object in multiple ways. Every view gives you a different insight and provides a unique vantage point. Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) systems are different mirrors that allow security teams to create focused analytics models for different insights about your security posture.