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What you dont see: malicious emails opened off your network; social media accounts impersonating your brand
and surveilling your people; mobile apps that siphon sensitive data from workers personal devices on the go. As the way
we work changes, these have become leading indicators of an attackthe stage where it is most effectively detected
and blocked. And they all happen outside of your network, well beyond the sightline of traditional security tools.
This visibility gap has become one of cybersecuritys most acute and fastest-growing problems. Even as organizations
spend upwards of $100 billion per year1 on the latest tools, cyber attackers keep getting through. Data continues to be
stolen. Breaches keep appearing in the news. And the losses continue to mount.
Todays business transcends the bounds of traditional network perimeters and connected endpoints. It transpires over
email. It flows through social networks. It plays out across all types of mobile devices.
As the modern workforce has moved beyond the network, so have cyber attackers. Thats why todays threats require
seeing beyond the networkinto every channel, every device, everywhere your people, data, and brand are.
Unfortunately, most security tools still focus on the parameter and endpoints. This approach may be somewhat useful for
detecting threats already inside your environment. But it does little to stop them from getting there in the first place. And
worse, it illuminates only the last stage of the attack, leaving you blind to most of the attack lifecycle. Without this insight,
you cant prevent attacks or respond effectively.
About three quarters of breached organizations learn that theyve been attacked through an outside party.2 A
whopping 98% didn't discover the breach until a week after the fact.3 And more than half aren't confident they found
the root cause.4
60%
40%
20%
0%
In other words, when it comes to one of the most catastrophic events that can happen to a company, most never see
it coming. And many dont know what happened even after the fact.
This paper examines the origins of this visibility gap, its consequences, and how to expand your field of view to better
protect your people, data, and brand.
1 Steve Morgan (Forbes). Worldwide Cybersecurity Spending Increasing to $170 Billion by 2020. March 2016.
2 Verizon. Data Breach Investigations Report. April 2016.
3 Ponemon Institute. "The Post Breach Boom." February 2013.
4 Ibid.
BLIND SPOTS: Why Cybersecuritys Visibility Gap Matters, and How Organizations Can Solve It 3
MOST ATTACKS BEGIN OUTSIDE YOUR NETWORK
Even when cyber attacks exploit a technical vulnerability, At the same time, brands are using social media more than ever
they usually involve people. The holiday 2013 data breach at to interact with their audiences. But many of those interactions
Targetone of the highest-profile cyber attacks everstarted are hijacked by attackers using similar-looking accounts to
with a phishing email sent to an employee at the retail giants spread malware, promote fraud, and steal credentials.
air-conditioning vendor.5
On the mobile front, dangerous apps downloaded from
While most attacks still occur via email, social networks and rogue marketplaces affect two in five enterprises.9 Lured in
mobile devices are fast becoming popular threat vectors.6 by free clones of popular games and banned apps, users
More than one in every five clicks to a malicious URL takes who download apps from rogue marketplacesand bypass
place off the corporate network through email, social networks, multiple security warnings in the processare four times more
or on mobile devices.7 likely to download an app that is malicious. These apps steal
personal information, passwords, and data.
The already-massive volume of malicious messages continues
to rise. In the first quarter of 2016, malicious email message
volume (emails that contain harmful URLs and file attachments)
increased by 66% over the fourth quarter 2015and more than
800% vs. the year-ago quarter.8
5 Krebs on Security. Email Attack on Vendor Set Up Breach at Target. February 2014.
6 Proofpoint. Quarterly Threat Summary: Jan-Mar 2016. April 2016.
7 Proofpoint. The Human Factor 2016. February 2016.
8 Proofpoint. Quarterly Threat Summary: Jan-Mar 2016. April 2016.
9 Ibid.
10 Verizon. 2016 Data Breach Investigations Report. April 2016.
11 Ibid.
12 Proofpoint. The State of Social Media Infrastructure. 2014.
13 Proofpoint. Instagram Attack Spotlights Blended Social Media and Email Trend. March 2016.
4 BLIND SPOTS: Why Cybersecuritys Visibility Gap Matters, and How Organizations Can Solve It
Indexed Volume of Social Media Activity Per Hour
Legitimate Activity
Spam Activity
12AM 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12PM 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
BLIND SPOTS: Why Cybersecuritys Visibility Gap Matters, and How Organizations Can Solve It 5
Where stolen data was sent in mobile-based attacks in 2016
Z
1.2%
3.8%
6.9%
Russian Federation
19.1%
4.0%
Germany
Republic of Korea
48.8% China
Netherlands
2.1%
United States 4.1%
Japan
Hong Kong
15 Ponemon Institute. Advanced Threats in Financial ServicesA Study of North America and EMEA. May 2015.
16 Ponemon Institute. Advanced Threats in RetailA Study of North America and EMEA. May 2015.
17 Kelly Jackson Higgins (InformationWeek). "Cost of a Data Breach Jumps By 23%." October 2014.
18 Ponemon Institute. 2015 Cost of Data Breach Study: Global Analysis. May 2015.
6 BLIND SPOTS: Why Cybersecuritys Visibility Gap Matters, and How Organizations Can Solve It
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Aware of todays cyber threats, organizations are investing millions into new technologies to detect, block,
and resolve attacks. Unfortunately, most of these tools are looking in the wrong places.
Organizations must look beyond the network. We recommend a three-pronged approach to bridging the
visibility gap:
1. Identify key blind spots. Determine whether your current defense is in the flow of todays attacks.
That means email, social media, and mobile devices.
2. Create a plan to close the gaps. The specifics of this plan will hinge on the size of your organi-
zation and security team. It may include modeling your return on investment and potential impact
to your security operation.
3. Consider solutions to improve visibility. The best tools will not only detect threats beyond the
network but tie into your incident response tools. Visibility into todays threat vectors enhances your
ability to respond to current threats and makes the next one even easier to stop.
To learn more about the risks you may not be seeing, schedule a free Proofpoint threat assessment. Our
simple, non-invasive process will help you assess your security posture. Youll get a clearer picture of
threats and vulnerabilities in your environment.
Email
Our email risk assessment shows you who is being targeted and how (ransomware, credential
phishing, BEC, and so on).
Mobile
Our mobile defense risk assessment shows you what mobile applications your users have on
their phones and what each of those apps is doing.
Social
Our social risk assessment provides a snapshot of all accounts associated with your brands
corporate, unauthorized, and fraudulent.
Data Discover
A Data Discover risk assessment shows you where sensitive data lives within your environment.
BLIND SPOTS: Why Cybersecuritys Visibility Gap Matters, and How Organizations Can Solve It 7
ABOUT PROOFPOINT
Proofpoint, Inc. (NASDAQ:PFPT), a next-generation cybersecurity company, enables organizations to protect the way their people work
today from advanced threats and compliance risks. Proofpoint helps cybersecurity professionals protect their users from the advanced
attacks that target them (via email, mobile apps, and social media), protect the critical information people create, and equip their
teams with the right intelligence and tools to respond quickly when things go wrong. Leading organizations of all sizes, including over
50 percent of the Fortune 100, rely on Proofpoint solutions, which are built for todays mobile and social-enabled IT environments and
leverage both the power of the cloud and a big-data-driven analytics platform to combat modern advanced threats.
Proofpoint, Inc. Proofpoint is a trademark of Proofpoint, Inc. in the United States and other countries.
www.proofpoint.com All other trademarks contained herein are property of their respective owners.