Big Data Analytics- a Key to Cyber Security

Big Data Analytics is rapidly evolving the culture in which IT industry leaders and cyber security professionals have been working together to uncover hidden patterns, correlations and other facets of the business. The era of big data is here to create a more reliable platform for data storage while safeguarding the data and information from the attack of cybercriminals.

Growth of data

For each and every organization, be that small or a larger one, data is its most precious asset which they can’t afford to lose. Organizations are also aware of the situations they might face if their systems get hacked as it will lead to situation of crisis. It simply asserts that deploying big data tools is the need of the hour.

According to a Cisco research paper, global internet traffic will surpass 1 zettabyte (1 billion terabytes) in 2016 which is for the first time since its very conception, having risen fivefold in the past five years. A separate study asserts that 90% of the world’s data was generated in the past two years. It shows that data volume is growing at an exponential rate and so is the demand for the respective security measures.

New business models

Dealing with the big data and identifying the appropriate platform for its subsequent storage is the most prominent task for the corporate world. Moreover, big data analytics is bringing a handful of opportunities for businesses to grow with the help of new business models which aims at deploying security-specific analytics in order to move beyond the business intelligence.

Reducing Cost & Increasing efficiency

With the advent of technology and Big Data platforms, it has become easier for the organizations to keep a track of all the important data in a safe and accessible custody. Cloud has emerged as the widely accepted storage platform to manage and store big data rather than storing the same on computer hard drives.

Big data analytics will improve the decision-making process of the company and lead to faster delivery of goods and services while ensuring customer satisfaction as well as retention simultaneously. If organizations apply big data analytics tools and methods to cyber security analytics, they can subsequently witness scalability and increased operational efficiency in a cost effective manner.

Identify and analyse the threats

Detecting threats to big data at an early stage is important and that requires sophisticated pattern analysis, and combining and analysing multiple data sources. Apart from that, physical security systems have a lot to offer in terms of integrating information from the security point of view. Such systems such as building access controls and CCTVs could prove beneficial in order to enhance intrusion detection systems (IDS) and intrusion prevention systems (IPS) to a point where insider attacks and social engineering acts majorly in the detection process.

First of all, organizations and IT professionals need to identify the key security threats associated with the big data and further evaluate the role of big data analytics. New innovative methods should remain the area of concern in order to tackle the menace of cyber crime with the existing in-house man power.

Fraud detection via big data analytics

Big data analytics further helps to analyze data from many different sources and data types and then respond in real time which acts as a key to fraud detection. Industry experts predict that many enterprises and government organizations are interested in arranging the resources not just to analyze metadata but also to automate tasks. This will enable more flexibility in terms of data usage at their maximum advantage.

Data Security Measures

Data privacy and governance must go hand in hand with other security measures such as endpoint security, application security, network security, and a lot more to gain deeper insights of data protection and safety. Ideal and strategic planning for the introduction as well as implementation of big data analytics in any organization can help in reducing data security threat to a huge extent.

Big data analytics application can help organizations to look for malware residing inside their systems and subsequently increasing the chances for data security measures. Malware is the major threat to any organization and its detection at an early stage is necessary in order to prevent the data from being attacked by the virus. Big data analytics platforms can make the task done for you and that too within a short span of time thereby ensuring more reliable and secure network.

Traditional data analytics tools and infrastructure are not compatible enough to deal with the increasing data volume as data has become more complex than ever before due to the aggressive nature of corporate fraternity. Furthermore, businesses must shoulder the responsibility of protecting the data from cyber threat in order to lead a long-run development.

Detection of Malware, zero day attacks, and malicious insiders have been made exceptionally possible via big data analytics. IT ecosystem is enabling organizations to explore the unconventional security tool while fighting advanced cyber threat and enhancing business intelligence, which is a welcome step.