Barb Darrow, Senior Director of Communications at Oracle, wrote about today’s “unprecedented challenge” of cybersecurity. Technological and legal complexities are continuing to grow in this age of heightened cybersecurity threats—including a rise in state-sponsored hacking. This “unprecedented challenge” was a topic of conversation between Dorian Daley, Oracle Executive Vice President and General Counsel, and Edward Screven, Oracle’s Chief Corporate Architect during Oracle’s recent Media Days.

For a more in-depth look at that conversation, check out the Quest article “Oracle’s Strategy for Handling the Current Security Threat Landscape” or the video attached below.

Barb gave a brief list of five key takeaways from the pair’s conversation.

Key Takeaways About the “Unprecedented Challenge” of Cybersecurity

Here are the five key takeaways that Barb identified:

1. Making Cybersecurity a Priority: In good news, businesses are aware of cybersecurity challenges in a way they were not even just a few years ago. In the past, many viewed cybersecurity as a priority but didn’t go much beyond that thought. Now, it’s become a front-and-center kind of issue for Oracle customers.
2. Making It “Someone Else’s Problem:” These same customers would like to make data security “someone else’s problem,” are right to think that way, according to Screven. In this context, that “someone else” is a third-party technology vendor (like Oracle) that is able to design technology that is inherently more secure than what non-tech businesses could design for themselves.
3. Data Privacy Regulations: Regulations around data privacy are getting more complicated, starting with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation. The issues of data privacy and data security constitute slightly different sides to the same problem. Daley added, “What’s happening on the privacy side is really an explosion of regulatory frameworks around the world.”
4. Leverage Technology to Solve the Problem: It’s important to understand that there is only so much that employees can do—no matter how skilled they may be. Research shows that while most companies city human error as the leading cause of data insecurity, they also keep throwing more people at the problem that can’t really be solved “without a level of automation commensurate with the sophistication and volume of attacks.” Daley added that there is a lack of sufficient awareness about what technology can actually do for customers. Fast, autonomous (self-applying) software patches and updates are a solid way to mitigate or even prevent data loss from cyber hacks. Many attacks and subsequent data leaks over the past few years could have been avoided if available software patches had been applied in a timely fashion. Artificial intelligence (AI) ad machine learning technology can catch far more anomalies, like unauthorized system access. This could help indicate a security problem must faster than human experts can and could eliminate issues before they get serious.
5. No Preventing State-Sponsored Cyber Hacking: Screven is skeptical that international treaties, if such things could be crafted, would eradicate state-sponsored cyber hacking because much of that activity happens under the covers by contractors that can be disavowed by the states. Screven added, “The same person who is out stealing your credit card today is out trying to steal plans for Hellfire missiles tomorrow.”

For more information about today’s “unprecedented challenge” of cybersecurity and what Oracle plans to do about it, check out the video and additional Quest resources attached below.