Webcast: Preparing for Big Data and the Internet of Things

Big Data and the Internet of Things are causing an exponential rise in threat risks to organizations of all sizes.

In our webcast with Lamont Orange, Chief Information Security Officer at Websense and Rick McElroy, Director of Information Security for Bridgepoint Education, these two experts explain what IT security pros need to be doing right now to meet the threats posed by Big Data and the IoT.

Orange and McElroy address pressing questions such as:

• What risks do Big Data and the IoT present to your organization?
• What can you do and what new technologies are best to safeguard against specific risks?
• How do you balance between security and innovation without becoming the "department of no" when your organization asks for and needs new programs and technology?
• What are the tradeoffs between being a late or early adopter of Big Data and IoT?

Among the many strategies presented in the webcast, McElroy and Orange strongly suggest that data security specialists develop frameworks and controls in order to identify and prioritize the data that's critical to their businesses.

Unfortunately, not all security systems make that job an easy one, especially with limited IT budgets.

"Operational intelligence is three-quarters of the rule", said McElroy. "If you know the data that's important to you, then you can put controls around it and drop the unnecessary components. That's a big step towards minimizing the impact."

That means providing visibility into threats and having the security tools you need, as well as knowing what security pieces you're missing. On the flip side of the operational intelligence question is successfully managing the flow of data into your organization by effectively managing your infrastructure and connectivity surfaces.

Orange urges IT professionals to reduce resource demands by reducing the overall "threat surface" of newly connected devices at work. "You cannot deny necessarily all those devices and IoT related items that may come into your network," he said. "But what you can do is reduce the amount of information and the abilities that (these devices) may have on the network."

To find out all of these experts' critical recommendations on preparing your organization for Big Data and the IoT, download the webcast.