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According to recent disclosures, a staggering number of businesses and organizations of all sizes reported breaches in September 2024. More than 70 companies reported data breaches to the Maine Attorney General's Office, while another 39 companies reported breaches to California's AG office, all in just the past month. Yikes!
Across all industries, 98.5% of the cybersecurity leaders we've spoken with have been unable to answer two vital questions
What do you do when all of our current cybersecurity tools are bypassed? If your team, Managed Service Provider (MSP), or IT professionals cannot answer this with certainty, your cybersecurity strategy is outdated and requires urgent attention. Using a Cybersecurity Incident Response Plan (CSIRP) means that something has already gone wrong.
After a successful breach, why are you still relying on the same tools that were just bypassed? If the breach occurred, your current tools were insufficient to stop the attack and failed to provide any warning, alert, or indication that they had been bypassed. These tools leave customers stuck in recovery, response, and backup mode, forcing them to resolve the problem on their own or spend more money bringing in experts to tell you that you were breached and how it happened—after the fact. 🤔 If you are in recovery, response, or backup mode, it means something bad has already happened, and you've been breached—too late, game over! This question needs to be addressed and should be one of the first steps in your Cybersecurity Incident Response Plan (CSIRP).
It's story time, little rascals!
Imagine coming home to find that not only was your outer alarm system bypassed, but the thieves also picked your locks and got inside. Your home security measures failed at every level. Would you reinstall the same weak alarm system and locks, hoping it won’t happen again? Of course not. You’d upgrade to latest, greatest, and stronger perimeter defenses and smarter locks for your home. So why wouldn't you do that for your business?
Let’s take this scenario a bit deeper. You recently hosted a 50th birthday party at your home, inviting a large mix of friends, both old and new. However, not all of the guests received their invitations directly from you. Some were invited by someone you trust—your old high school friends—a third party. What neither you nor your trusted friends realized is that some of these guests were actually professional thieves, who had been targeting your home for months.
Because they were welcomed into your home by someone you trusted, these criminals had the perfect opportunity to "live off the land." Just like in a cyberattack, where hackers use existing tools and access within an organization to exploit it from the inside, these intruders blended in seamlessly, using nothing more than the access provided to them. They quietly studied the inside of your home, noting your security system, observing how your alarm operates, and pinpointing where your jewelry and safe are stored. They overheard your vacation plans, spotted your family calendar, and even figured out what time your kids get home from school or carpool. They noticed when your sprinkler system turns on and off, the battery life of your Ring alarm, and how many Roku boxes and TVs are connected.
All of this was done without any forced entry or obvious signs of intrusion. They didn’t need to break in that night—they simply gathered the intelligence needed to plan their return. This is exactly how attackers in the cyber world operate—using legitimate tools, access, and processes against you, making it harder to detect their presence until it's too late. Just as these thieves "lived off the land" at your party, cybercriminals exploit the trust and resources already in place to blend in and remain undetected.
Now, imagine a smarter security system
What if your security system didn’t just alert you after the break-in but watched the thieves’ every move? What if, in a matter of seconds and without any human intervention, the system hid all valuables left in the open, notified you to change the password on your safe, and even replaced your jewelry with aftermarket decoys? Imagine it could go even further, slowing the thieves down at every turn, frustrating their efforts and taking up their valuable time, while giving you time to call the police. You wouldn’t just be reacting—you’d be one step ahead.
In cybersecurity, the same idea applies. When hackers bypass your defenses and enter your network, going back to the same tools that failed you is like trusting those weak locks again. What if you could improve your technology to not just defend, but actively respond and retaliate in real time, securing your critical data before it’s stolen?
You wouldn’t just be relying on old, passive defenses. You’d be playing offense, proactively safeguarding your business at every step, ensuring hackers leave empty-handed and locked out of your system long before they can do any damage.
Cyberattacks Are Smarter, and Moving Faster than Humans Can Keep Up
The rise in cyberattacks and the stress on cybersecurity teams has left businesses, particularly those relying on third-party vendors, exposed. In the ABBI (After Breach, Before Impact) phase of the attack, many organizations are unaware that they've been compromised. Traditional tools—firewalls, MDR, XDR, and ZTNA—are often bypassed by sophisticated cyberattacks, leaving companies in a reactive, rather than proactive, posture.
Organizations are increasingly reliant on third-party software providers, which introduces a significant risk, and hackers are adept at exploiting these external dependencies, and are moving at a more rapid pace once inside the network than previously thought. The Moveit, Change Healthcare, and CDK Global incidents show that hackers leverage some of these entry points to access sensitive customer data, causing long-term damage to businesses and eroding customer trust. Some of the affected companies are still amending their notices to customers months after their breaches, a clear sign that breaches can have lingering, harmful effects on their networks, but more importantly, on their customer's customers and partners network ecosystem.
This is where activeSENTINEL™ can make a crucial difference. Unlike traditional tools that simply act as defenses, activeSENTINEL™ augments existing systems with real-time detection capabilities, powered by advanced AI, Machine Learning, Neural Networks, Deep Learning, and Digital Twin Technology. It detects breaches after traditional security tools have been bypassed, during the ABBI phase, and allows cybersecurity teams to respond before the impact is fully realized. In an industry under constant attack, solutions like activeSENTINEL™ offer a lifeline by automating detection and providing real-time threat intelligence that current tools miss.
Credit monitoring and apologies are not enough to repair the lost trust, time, and mental stress caused by 3rd party software incidents, or caused by the direct organizations that are being breached. A proactive cybersecurity approach is the only viable solution for protecting not just your organization, but also your customers, partners, and the entire business ecosystem.
It's Time for a Defense in Depth Strategy
No single tool can defend against the growing sophistication of cyberattacks. A comprehensive Defense in Depth (DID) strategy that layers multiple defenses—combining technology like activeSENTINEL™ with human expertise—is critical for organizations of all sizes and industries. By doing so, companies can move from a purely reactive strategy to a proactive one that anticipates and mitigates threats before they cause harm.
Cybersecurity is not just about preventing breaches; it's about being prepared for when they happen. When tools fail, and when the enemy is already inside your walls, it's the organizations that have the right technologies and strategies in place that will survive.
What can you do today? Engage in a conversation with your IT teams, cybersecurity leaders, and third-party vendors. Ask the tough question: Are we prepared for when—not if—our tools are bypassed AND are we going to continue to depend on the tools that were just bypassed?
If the answer isn't a resounding "yes," it's time to rethink your approach.
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