Adaptive Security Architecture

The more we become immersed in the digital space, the more we are exposed to security threats, and businesses become vulnerable to cyberattacks. We have seen the repercussions of worldwide cyberattacks like WannaCry ransomware; and it probably does not help that there seem to be multitudes of malicious malware produced each time a company augments their security measures. Thus, we have adaptive security architecture.

What is Adaptive Security Architecture?

Adaptive security architecture is an approach towards security management issues in data transfer. It is intrinsic to computer networks that employ modern tactics and tools to alter their defence based on the demand of the security issue or threat. In a nutshell, adaptive security architecture ensures data is securely stored without breaches and compromises. The following four stages ensure the system adapts to these different threats:

1. Prevention: The systems are hardened and isolated to prevent any attacks. Additionally, it helps businesses to put precautionary processes and perimeters in place to counter the attack.
2. Detection: The security architecture detects and contains the incidents that bypass the prevention stage. This stage of the adaptive security architecture aims to reduce the time taken for threat detection; and therefore prevention of any potential damages from being definite damages.
3. Response: In this stage, the system conducts a retrospective analysis to find issues that were undetected in the previous stage. Aside from analysing threats that were uncovered, this stage also provides forensic insights which will then be used as new recommendations to avoid similar incidents in the future.
4. Prediction: The system proactively monitors and anticipates new security breaches that come from external threats, and the feedback from this stage is then utilised in the prevention and detection stage.

Objectives of Adaptive Security Architecture

Important objectives of adaptive security architecture are as follows:

• Diminish the threat from multiplying by restricting the potential spread
• Minimise the surface area that attackers target
• Lower the rate of attacks
• Rapid response to attack and thus decreasing remediation time
• Facilitate and prevent attacks that try to limit resources
• Counter attacks that aim to compromise data or system integrity

In the digital world, the key to staying ahead of risks and threats is by being proactive and predicting new threats. The traditional reactive approach is no longer effective in digital security as breaches and threats continue to increase exponentially. With this in mind, it seems the natural course of action to adopt a mindset of continuous response that adaptive security architecture affords you.