Page 14 - FCW, May 2017

IMPROVE CYBERSECURITY WITH NETWORK VISIBILITY
NETWORK VISIBILITY FOR COMPLEX NETWORKS
Big Questions
Cloud data storage can help promote all types of data analytics.
a cybersecurity attack by using big data analytics and 90 percent report a decline in security breaches.
The cloud can help with these impressive efforts. Storing large amounts of both structured and unstructured data from
a variety of sources in the cloud makes sense. Because it is elastic and usually runs on a multi-tenant architecture,
While it might not seem like discovering misappropriated funds, optimizing processes, predicting a disease outbreak or uncovering a terrorist plot have much in common; they are aspects of a single mission: serving and protecting the country and its citizens.
pens. A Meritalk study found nearly half of agencies are using them in combina- tion to improve operational efficiency, for cybersecurity analytics, and to establish performance tracking metrics.
CLOUD TO THE RESCUE
They share another common
factor as well. None of these efforts would be successful without access
to massive amounts of structured and unstructured data, along with advanced tools to analyze and make sense of the relationships between the data.
There are many real examples and possibilities. The Department of Health and Human Services, for example, is using this technology to root out fraud and improve tax compliance. Many agencies are using it to understand and optimize business processes. A military depot, for example, could optimize its stock based on predictions generated from sensor data. The military could also use GPS and RFID sensors to track items on delivery vehicles.
the cloud can expand to accommodate fast-growing data stores, and it can do so cost-effectively. With all data accessible from one source, it’s more straightforward to gather the data necessary to perform all types of analysis.
The first part of the equation is
the data. Agencies are working with increasingly large amounts of data these days. And that data is coming from many places—intelligent sensors, satellites, social media, machine logs, transactions, and mobile devices, among others.
“AGENCIES ARE WORKING WITH INCREASINGLY LARGE AMOUNTS OF DATA
THESE DAYS. AND THAT DATA IS COMING FROM MANY PLACES.”
The second aspect is a powerful data analytics tool to analyze data, answer questions, and resolve problems. These tools can perform many different types of analysis, depending on the situation:
Health-related agencies are using big data analytics to predict and monitor disease outbreaks. The NSA uses big data analytics to prevent terrorists from gaining the upper hand. Law enforcement agencies use big data analytics to track criminals. Science organizations use it to analyze huge amounts of data to advance science and research.
It’s also much faster. Instead of overloading a data warehouse with
too much data, which can slow down processes to unacceptable levels, cloud- enabled big data is extremely fast. Fast, reliable access to data can be a real deal- breaker for big data analytics. In many cases, agencies can’t get the full benefits from data analytics because of legacy silo-ed data sets.
Predictive analytics can help predict future outcomes or behavior.
Descriptive analytics helps determine what happened and diagnostic analytics evaluates why it happened.
Statistical analytics collects and analyzes samples to help draw conclusions.
Text analytics evaluates words and phrases to help understand emotion, intent or relevance.
Perhaps most importantly, agencies are using big data analytics to improve cybersecurity. According to Meritalk, more than 80 percent of feds say their agency uses big data analytics for cybersecurity to some degree. The vast majority say their agency has prevented
Finally, storing and analyzing big data in the cloud provides more opportunities for collaboration. Team members from throughout an agency or even outside contractors can develop analytic models and quickly and securely share insights.
There are many other types of analyt- ics as well, such as machine learning, hypothesis testing, and social network analysis. Putting big data and advanced analytics together is where the magic hap-
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