Page 38 - Security Today, May 2018

Security Operations
DWon’t be caught by surprise in your security operations
hether you’re a government, corporate or nonprofit able them to make smart decisions protecting life, property and op- organization the enemy of security operation is sur- erations. There are three primary inhibitors to making data driven prise. Surprise causes losses: losses in revenue, losses decisions:
in operational agility and even loss of life. In the data Volume. The shear amount of content available at once is both
age, it seems impossible that very much is unknowable, but there is a impressive and overwhelming. Industrial age processes that require
vast gap between knowable in theory and known when you need to know it. Like opportunity, security is a factor of time and place. With data, analysts can pull together a crisp picture of the security profile of a place in the time that matters, but it takes understanding how to handle the millions of data points among which that picture sits.
Too often today, most security operations are not taking advan- tage of the available data to drive physical and operational security. Those that have discovered the value of data analytics are primarily using single sources of information or multiple sources that are not integrated into a fulsome security awareness picture that would en-
heavy human touch are no longer a valid way to make smart deci- sions—there is too much data and not enough people.
Variety. Most security operation centers today are not taking ad- vantage of the variety of content needed, and available, to make smart data driven decisions. All too often there is an overreliance on single sources of information like social media that paint only a portion of the picture.
Veracity. Deciding what data you can trust, you are comfortable making a decision with can be a job unto itself, and the answer isn’t always black and white. Information can be very useful in one context
GS8
GOVERNMENT SECURITY MAY 2018
By John Goolgasian
Intelligence Driven
IR Stone/Shutterstock.com