Ubiquitous Connectivity and Threats: Architecting The Next Generation Cyber Security Operations

Due to breakneck proliferation of advanced cyber threats, cyber security operations today face challenges that are conflating at an exponential rate. The explosion of the Internet of Things is projected to expand the universe of connected objects from 8.7 billion in 2012 to over 50 billion by 2020, which is going to inundate today's cyber security operations with a sensor data flood of untenable proportions. Additionally, the dearth of skilled cyber security practitioners is projected to increase seven-fold by 2020. The widening gap created by these two compounding trends can only be filled by developing autonomous, pervasive cyber security capabilities that embrace machine learning and automated cognitive technologies to digest immense volumes of data to detect anomalies, make inferences, develop threat intelligence, and automate a multitude of responses in the cyber security operational environment. This paper will explore a proven "system thinking" design approach to empower cyber security operations analysts to regain control of their enterprise network by highlighting necessary capabilities that allow a force multiplier to overcome both the skilled labor shortage and the looming tsunami of data.