iSight: An Up and Coming Security Company

iSight: An Up and Coming Security Company

Hackers are getting more clever and efficient as new technologies are becoming advanced. The amount of cyber attacks against organizations are increasing, while more companies are finding themselves under attack when criminals find access to customers’ credit and debit card information. 

In the article, “Intelligence Start-Up Goes Behind Enemy Lines to Get Ahead of Hackers,” Nicole Perloth discusses iSight Partners, a new type of security company of cyberintelligence professionals who study hackers’ intentions and inform their clients with warnings of imminent attacks.

iSight is not like regular security companies. Instead of security companies such as Symantec and FireEye that focus on blocking intrusions as they occur, iSight goes straight to the enemy and tracks them down. Over the past couple years, businesses have invested in “big data” analytic tools that sound alarms anytime someone does something unusual. The main problem with this is that the average organization “receives 16,937 alerts a week” (Intelligence). With this new technology, businesses will be able to save a lot of time instead of having human resources randomly pick which alerts warrants action versus which alerts are not reliable. 

In the long run, iSight will become a good investment. Businesses will save more money because of the implications of this technology and will be more protected. Instead of spending money on damage control when an attack happens, iSight gives businesses the ability to target which patches to fix and when.

Another pro of businesses using iSight is that it protects and encrypts data, which makes it harder for businesses to be hacked. This will help businesses protect their customers’ data and information, which will lead to a more reliable, trusted organization.

On the other hand, this article overlooked some points that are important. iSight is very expensive. Companies who use this software pay up to “$500,000 or more annually for these services” (Intelligence). Because of that, companies may feel the need to stay with the security companies they already use if there is no cap room for the security budget.

Another point the article overlooked is that because iSight is too expensive, there is also competition in the market. According to the article, older clients such as banks hire former intelligence analysts to start the operations for them. These analysts offers similar services as iSight for half the cost. 

Finally, the article overlooks the fact that since iSight uses firewalls, some actions could block users from performing certain actions which could hurt businesses. Likewise, companies need to keep updating new software which is also very costly. 

In my opinion, if an organization has enough cap space to purchase this software, by all means they should do it. By going straight to the source instead of waiting to do damage control like most security companies, iSight will be beneficial to companies that receive thousands of alerts a week. This can prevent extreme attacks, save time, and save money in the long run.

Sources:

Perlorth, Nicole. “Intelligence Start-Up Goes Behind Enemy Lines to Get Ahead of Hackers.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 13 Sept. 2015. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.