The Relation between Big Data and Cybersecurity

Threat or Opportunity? Big Data and Cyber Security

The age of big data and cyber security is here. And that means both opportunity and risk for
most businesses. If you are in the cyber security field you are likely very familiar with big data,
which is the term used to describe a very large data set that is mined and analyzed to find
patterns and behavioral trends. It is generally defined as being dense in variety, velocity and
volume. From a cyber security standpoint big data has ushered in new possibilities in terms of
analytics and security solutions to protect data and prevent future cyber attacks. But just as big
data has opened up new possibilities for cyber security teams, it has also given cyber criminals
the opportunity to access mass quantities of sensitive and personal information through the use
of advanced technologies.

Threats and Opportunities

There are three main challenges that businesses are running into with big data:

 Protecting sensitive and personal information

 Data rights and ownership
 Not having the talent (i.e. data scientists) to analyze the data

While meeting the main challenge of safeguarding information may sound simple enough,
when you look at the scale of data that needs to be processed and analyzed in order to prevent
cyber attacks, the challenge becomes a little more daunting. For example, “to give you an idea
of how much data needs to be processed, a medium–size network with 20,000 devices (laptops,
smartphones and servers) will transmit more than 50 TB of data in a 24–hour period. That
means that over 5 Gbits must be analyzed every second to detect cyber attacks, potential threats
and malware attributed to malicious hackers,” according to Computer World.

Traditionally, the technologies and security tools that have been used to mine data and prevent
cyber attacks have been more reactive than proactive and have also created a large number of
false positives, creating inefficiencies and distracting from actual threats. What’s more these
traditional tools do not have the bandwidth required to deal with the large volumes of
information.

In comparison, big data analytics give cyber security professionals the ability to analyze data
from many different sources and data types and then respond in real time. Big data analytics is
not only able to gather information from a vast universe but it is also able to connect the dots
between data, making correlations and connections that may have otherwise been missed. This
increases efficiencies for cyber crime professionals and casts a wider more reliable net when it
comes to thwarting cyber attacks.

If businesses can figure out how to use modern technologies to safeguard personal and sensitive
data, then the opportunities that big data present are great. The two biggest benefits big data
offers companies today are:

 Business intelligence through access to vast data/customer analytics that can be used to
enhance and optimize sales and marketing strategies
 Fraud detection and a SIEM systems replacement
Increasing Big Data Security

When cyber criminals target big data sets, the reward is often well worth the effort needed to
penetrate security layers, which is why big data presents such a great opportunity not only for
businesses but for cyber criminals. They have a lot more to gain when they go after such a large
data set. Consequently, companies have a lot more to lose should they face a cyber attack
without the proper security measures in place.

In order to increase the security around big data, your business may consider:

 Collaborating with other industry peers to create industry standards, head off
government regulations, and to share best practices
 Attribute based encryption to protect sensitive information shared by third parties
 Secure open source software such as Hadoop
 Maintain and monitor audit logs across all facets of the business

Overall, big data presents enormous opportunities for businesses that go beyond just enhanced
business intelligence. Big data offers the ability to increase cyber security itself. Yet, in order
to benefit from the many opportunities big data presents, companies must shoulder the
responsibility and risk of protecting that data.

At the University of San Diego we offer a 100% online Master of Science in Cyber Security
Operations and Leadership. To learn more about our nationally accredited information security
degrees, visit our program page.