Cyber Defense eMagazine March Edition for 2022

the particular victims being targeted by the hackers. Customized attacks against mid-market companies
have expanded 4x in 2021. Insider threats, whether accidental or malicious, have also doubled in 2021,
showing the greater role employees have played in cyber vulnerabilities during the pandemic.
Closing the Mid-Market Cyber Security Gap with Intelligent Automation and AI
Mid-market spending on cyber security was up in 2021 as companies began to feel the heat from cyber
criminals testing their defenses. But most of the industry’s comprehensive cyber security solutions are
aimed at large enterprise customers – and mid-market companies need options beyond stitching together
piecemeal point solutions.
The three challenges to mid-market cyber security remain: overly expensive and complicated solutions,
greatly expanded attack surface driven by remote work, and increased attacks by hackers seeking to
exploit the mid-market. To overcome these challenges, companies need affordable solutions that
augment existing IT with built-in intelligence and non-disruptive security workflows. This is where
automation and AI come in.
As I said earlier, 88% of email malware solutions are misconfigured – and that doesn’t even account for
cloud malware, Wi-Fi phishing, and a huge range of emerging attack vectors for which most mid-sized
companies have no protections in place. Why should such misconfigurations and omissions leave a
company exposed to cyber threats, especially when a single breach could paralyze a business or cause
enough damage to close its doors forever? Where possible, the responsibility for effective cyber defense
needs to be shifted off the shoulders of overstretched IT teams and onto machines. AI must be deployed
to enable small teams with limited resources to effectively manage large and complex situations. Small
companies must seek solutions that simplify the security experience: comprehensive, all-in-one solutions
that are easy to deploy and easy to operate by way of intuitive UX design and AI automation.
The truth is, most small and mid-sized companies don’t need dozens of security professionals to manage
straightforward and common security tasks. Look for security solutions that instead make use of
intelligent automation to reduce the load on IT and security teams. Intelligent automation can
automatically block malware threats, prevent accidental or malicious data leakage, lock down rogue
accounts, and prevent the majority of incoming attack attempts, all without human intervention. For the
small percentage of issues that AI and intelligent automation can’t resolve, a concise and clear notification
can be sent to administrators that can be resolved quickly and easily.
Even in this rapidly evolving cyber climate, the cost and complexity of security can be managed, and
escalating cyber threats can be controlled. Comprehensive cyber security can and should be fully
accessible to mid-sized companies. It’s time for mid-market IT leaders reconsider the standard point
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