TRACEing the path to enterprise security

Industry research firm Frost & Sullivan has come up with what it says is “the new industry standard for holistic enterprise security,” and yet another acronym: TRACE, for ‘Threat Response Adaptive Core Ecosystem’. Here’s what it means.

Frost & Sullivan explains TRACE in a white paper. According to F&S’s senior industry analyst and the head of its cyber security practice, Charles Lim. “The inspiration behind TRACE was to create a new industry standard for the cyber security community by developing a holistic approach which includes not only security products but also the expertise required to prevent, detect and remediate threats effectively in the enterprise environment.”

F&S says the limitation of current security services and dedicated high-end appliances to handle specific tasks is pushing companies to look at a holistic approach to security that combines endpoint protection with firewall intelligence and advanced security tools. “As security vendors continue to innovate, it is vital that offerings be part of a holistic approach where management to remediation can be achieved easily and seamlessly,” it says.

T.R.A.C.E

TRACE is designed to “help enterprises evaluate the right tools for a holistic security approach.”  F&S believes that adopting a platform approach can “operationalise the vision of a holistic security strategy, comprising the right balance between security mindsets, tools and skill sets.”

The approach to security set out in the TRACE white paper is designed to cover all aspects of organisational IT — access, endpoints, web assets, cloud and mobile based applications, content — along with human factor mitigation, vulnerability management and security analytics.

Lanrex managing director, Jodie Korber, said: “TRACE presents a useful shopping list not only of the security hardware and software an organisation should implement, but also of the people, policies and procedures it should put in place. And, in line with the accepted wisdom that security breaches are inevitable, the emphasis is on detection and remediation as much as prevention.”

F&S’s aim seems to be that buyers of security technologies and services will embrace TRACE and push the security industry to follow suit.

It says, “TRACE aims to provide assessors with insights into the critical features and identify future vulnerabilities to help build and deploy a holistic security strategy to tackle the ever-evolving threat landscape.”

And: “Security vendors need to consider moving their investments into establishing a more holistic approach to not only strengthen prevention tools, such as penetration testing solutions, but also develop a full detection and remediation strategy for the user.”

Finally, the white paper comes with a caveat: “The recommendations are from an analyst’s point of view and may not necessarily comply with specific security standards, such as ISO27001 or cyber security legislation of any country.”

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