Attivo Networks, an award-winning leader in deception for cybersecurity threat detection, has announced the availability of a new research report, conducted by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) and commissioned by Attivo Networks, that explores attitudes and views of deception technology in the enterprise.
The research uncovered contrasts between users and non-users of deception technologies. One of the most significant findings is that users of deception technology reported a 12X improvement in the average number of days it takes to detect attackers operating within an enterprise network when compared to those unfamiliar with the technology.
Other studies conducted by incident response service providers or endpoint detection and response vendors suggest an average of 78 to over 100 days, while survey respondents that are highly familiar users of deception technology reported dwell times as low as 5.5 days.
A total of 70% of respondents highly familiar with and currently using deception technology rated their organisations as highly effective as compared to 49% reported from the aggregate of all users, including deception technology users.
The research explored:
- The primary motivation for looking at deception technology. A total of 67% of respondents evaluating or planning to look at deception technology cited the speed of detecting threats early in the attack lifecycle as the primary driver behind their interest.
- A total of 19 different use cases including detection, ransomware, data loss tracking and counterintelligence, and insider policy violations. Notably, when respondents ranked 12 security tools for detecting insider threats, 30% ranked deception technology, tied with next-generation endpoint security, as the most effective tool in detecting insider threats.
- Respondents reported deployment environments including the cloud (27%), IoT/OT/specialised (15%), remote locations (11%) and headquarter offices (10%), validating the utilisation across diverse attack surfaces. These findings are consistent with the detection survey conducted in 2018 by Attivo Networks, where 62% of respondents rated cloud and 34% identified OT/specialised environments as the top attack surfaces of concern.
- The unique value and benefits of deception technology. The survey provided nine choices with the top five benefits cited as faster incident response (13%), detection of basic and advanced threats regardless of techniques (12%), more actionable alerts (12%), intelligence on attacker movement techniques and targets (12%) and visibility to attack paths and credential vulnerabilities (12%).
- The value of deception technology is evident as 71% of respondents cited that they have achieved a significantly to somewhat higher value from the technology than initially expected. A total of 84% stated that they planned to increase their spending in the future.
“Quantifying the ROI of security controls can be extremely challenging and is often tied to overall breach metrics that can be heavily debated,” said Carolyn Crandall, Chief Deception Officer and CMO of Attivo Networks.
“This survey is particularly interesting in that it quantifies the specific value derived and the sentiment of deception technology users compared to non-users.”
Crandall continued: “Cybersecurity has traditionally been a ‘cat and mouse game’ between IT teams and cyberattackers, with a cybercriminal’s arsenal continually evolving.
“Deception technology, however, shifts power back to the defender, giving organisations visibility and early detection, company-specific threat intelligence and faster incident response.”
To download the report visit ‘A Definitive Market Guide to Deception Technology’
