In a survey of 500 IT security experts, Exabeam researchers discovered that nearly two-thirds of their respondents (65%) prioritize prevention over detection as their number one endpoint security objective. For the remaining third (33%), detection remained their utmost priority. 

Late to the Party 

To make the situation worse, the businesses actually act on this idea. The majority (59%) allocate the same amount to detection, investigation, and response, while nearly three-quarters (71%) spend between 21% and 50% of their IT security resources on prevention. 

According to Steve Moore, chief security strategist at Exabeam, the issue with this strategy is that the businesses concentrate on prevention while threat actors are already there, rendering their efforts useless. 

“As is well known, the real question is not whether attackers are on the network, but how many there are, how long they have had access and how far they have gone[…]Teams need to raise awareness of this question and treat it as an unwritten expectation to realign their investments and where they need to perform, paying due attention to adversary alignment and response to incidents. Prevention has failed,” says Moore. 

The majority of responders said yes when asked if they are confident, they can prevent attacks. In fact, 97% of respondents indicated they felt confident in the ability of their tools and processes to detect and stop attacks and data breaches. 

Only 62% of respondents agreed when asked if they could easily inform their boss that their networks were not compromised at the time, implying that over a third were still unsure. 

Exabeam explains that security teams are overconfident and have data to support it. The company claims that 83% of organizations experienced more than one data breach last year, citing industry reports. 

Among the many approaches implemented in order to combat security affairs, most organizations appear to be inclined towards the prevention-based strategy. The reason is, it strives to make systems more resistant to attack. Contrary to detection-based security, this approach is more effective in a variety of situations. 

Implementing a preventive approach could aid a company in significantly reducing the risk of falling prey to a potential cyberattack if it applies appropriate security solutions like firewalls and antivirus software and patches detected vulnerabilities.