Are Traditional Security Tools Dead?

By Salim Hafid, Product Marketing Manager, Bitglass

When evaluating security options, CISOs and security architects are always looking to the solution that will minimize cost and administrative overhead while maximizing data protection. At the highest levels, enterprises have relied on traditional tools as a means of protecting data over the long term, but as cloud app adoption rises, these tools are increasingly seen as ineffective; incapable of meeting the needs of an evolving enterprise with a growing stable of cloud apps and unmanaged endpoints capable of accessing those apps.

We surveyed over 500 cybersecurity professionals in our Cloud Hard 2018 survey to better understand how organizations are approaching these traditional security tools. Whether they view firewalls and endpoint security as obsolete, and what tools they believe to be critical and protecting the next generation of platforms that will store and extend access to corporate data.

While awareness of these challenges has risen a great deal in the last several years – 84% say traditional security solutions don't work well in a cloud environment – many haven't yet taken action and are suffering the consequences. Breaches at Orbitz, Panera, Sears, and more so far this year have proven the need for improved visibility and control over internal systems.

Asked about visibility, only 58% of respondents indicated that they had some means of tracking file downloads. Even fewer – 15% – were able to see anomalous activity across applications. These rates are worrisome in that without visibility, organizations are more prone to being completely unaware of an attack and could be hit by surprise when a hacker leaks their customer or client data. An event that could be incredibly costly to remedy and could permanently tarnish a brand.

We explore these responses and the state of cloud security in our Cloud Hard 2018 survey. Download the full report for more.