Optiv’s Schawacker says automation must be future of continuous monitoring

When it comes to continuous monitoring for cybersecurity – and its companion strategy of continuous diagnostics and mitigation – federal agency practitioners...

When it comes to continuous monitoring for cybersecurity – and its companion strategy of continuous diagnostics and mitigation – federal agency practitioners need to be realistic about how they apply the words “monitoring” and “continuous.”

That’s according to Peter Schawacker, Director of Security Intelligence Solutions at Optiv, a market-leading provider of end-to-end cybersecurity solutions.

Too often, he says, management presumes there will be “eyes on glass and people watching stuff.” In reality, that mode is really only operative during the hunting phase, after the network instrumentation signals something is wrong and it’s time to use human intervention.

That model is too slow for today’s threat perpetrators, Schawacker says. He says agencies must move more aggressively into automation of the kill-chain – monitoring, detection, evaluation and action, and free up more time for people to do predictive analysis.

 

Host

Tom Temin, Federal News Radio

Tom Temin has been the host of the Federal Drive since 2006. Tom has been reporting on and providing insight to technology markets for more than 30 years.  Prior to joining Federal News Radio, Tom was a long-serving editor-in-chief of Government Computer News and Washington Technology magazines. Tom also contributes a regular column on government information technology.

 

Guest

Peter Schawacker, Director of Security Intelligence Solutions, Optiv

Peter Schawacker (pronounced like “shaw-walker”) serves as the Director of Security Intelligence Solutions for Optiv’s Services Center of Excellence. He is an intrapreneneur who mines Optiv for opportunities to solve client problems and grow the company. A veteran of the Information Security industry, as part of the early days of EarthLink in the mid-1990’s. Later, he ran Citigroup’s  SOC, before taking on technical, sales and marketing roles with ISS, NFR, McAfee and Tenable. Prior to his current role at Optiv, he built SIEM consulting services for Alchemy Security and Accuvant. Mr. Schawacker resides in Mexico City.

Peter Schawacker, Director of Security Intelligence Solutions, Optiv Peter Schawacker (pronounced like “shaw-walker”) serves as the Director of Security Intelligence Solutions for Optiv’s Services Center of Excellence. He is an intrapreneneur who mines Optiv for opportunities to solve client problems and grow the company. A veteran of the Information Security industry, as part of the early days of EarthLink in the mid-1990’s. Later, he ran Citigroup’s  SOC, before taking on technical, sales and marketing roles with ISS, NFR, McAfee and Tenable. Prior to his current role at Optiv, he built SIEM consulting services for Alchemy Security and Accuvant. Mr. Schawacker resides in Mexico City.

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