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Breaching the Sensitive Security Discussion At AT&T Business Summit

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Whether IP theft, currency theft, influence operations or hardened ideological motives, every business is exposed in its own way.

In the lead up to its annual Business Summit, AT&T boldly asked what the next five to ten years will look like. And attendees descending on the company’s sold out event earlier this month were abuzz with answers – excitedly discussing the next big ideas and opportunities that will power enterprise innovation. But across the show floor and in some of the event’s most impactful sessions, a more sobering discussion was taking place: what is to be done about the looming security challenges that threaten all of this amazing opportunity that everyone sees?

Yes, what was once the driving subject of more niche, focused conferences has fully spilled into the mainstream. Truth is, in this global environment, security risks are all around us, casting a long, dark shadow that simply can’t be ignored. And no enterprise gets a free pass. Whether IP theft, currency theft, influence operations or hardened ideological motives, every business is exposed in its own way.

Particularly, the excellent “Nation State Actors – 2020” session dove into this daunting and expanding challenge. To say the least, there were a lot of heads nodding in the room. And afterwards, the conversations among attendees tended to culminate in a familiar question: “What can I do that I’m not doing already.”

How can I be sure I’m protected?

Throughout the AT&T Business Summit, we heard directly from security professionals with concerns about where they were most vulnerable. Many had all the right reactive bases covered, like firewalls and intrusion detection systems – but a proactive strategy? That was a different story, though this is starting to change. Amid the many protections enterprises and telcos alike are putting into place to mitigate fallout from security attacks, one approach starting to get more attention is continual data breach assessment and validation. This is something we’ve been talking about at the big security conferences for some time now, but it’s still a new topic for many.

To help our customers to stay ahead of the curve on attacks and breaches, Spirent’s security assessment solutions emulate realistic, always-up-to-date security traffic and attack scenarios to assess vulnerabilities and breach potential of devices and underlying network infrastructure – whether a private LAN or expansive 5G deployment. The goal here is to work toward a safe and simple way to proactively assess and validate the overall security posture on a continual basis. The demos we showed to the many attendees that came through our booth at the event definitely struck a nerve. Because let’s face it, all of the defenses in the world won’t stop people from still trying to find a way in. That’s why a proactive approach that finds the vulnerabilities before the hackers do has become not a nice-to have, but a critical imperative.

How can we help?

The security professionals we spoke with at the Summit wanted to know how they could be sure they’re buttoned up from a security perspective. For starters, the risk on the network perimeter must be qualified. Not once, but over and over. Today is today. But what does the picture look like in six months after 400 new significant zero-day attacks that have been unleashed? We put networks to the test, assuming that the masses will be targeting the latest exploits with everything they’ve got. Staying not just one, but many steps ahead is the only way to truly drive down threat levels.

In AT&T’s ninth annual Cybersecurity Insights Report, a key takeaway was that enterprises are just not doing enough to address emerging risks, such as those posed by 5G. It’s true, but it’s far from too late.

Get in touch with us for a demo or an on-site review to start your journey toward a safer network environment that protects your users, data and those next big ideas that will transform markets over the next five years, ten years and beyond.

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TagsSecurity, GNSS
Tobin Krueger
Tobin Krueger

VP and Client Partner Executive for AT&T

Tobin joined Spirent to lead our engagement with AT&T. Tobin brings extensive experience working with operators and leading sales, business development, IT , and operations teams, including more than 15 years with AT&T. Tobin works to facilitate collaborative knowledge sharing with AT&T based on Spirent's work in the broader ecosystem. Tobin also regularly engages at all levels throughout AT&T and communicates key learnings to the relevant teams within Spirent.