Jane Edwards
Pamela Warren, director of government and industry solutions at Palo Alto Networks, has said government agencies should adopt automation in an effort to protect networks from emerging cyber threats and predict cyber attackers’ actions.
Warren wrote in a FedTech Magazine article published Tuesday that a recent Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity report also recommended the use of automation tools such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, as well as the development of a skilled information technology workforce in order to address cybersecurity problems.
She also discussed issues associated with the agencies’ use of similar processes and dependence on personnel to execute such procedures in response to cyber threats, such as the manual assessment of incoming threat intelligence feeds and correlation of insights on various areas of the attack chain.
“The processes that agencies use to understand and protect against new threats are often manpower-heavy, using their precious few skilled resources,†Warren wrote.
“These processes are also time-consuming, which means agencies miss precious time to take action, translating into a missed opportunity to incorporate real prevention measures against the latest threats,†she added.
Warren also called on agencies to leverage human capital to protect supervisory control and data acquisition platforms, industrial control systems and other critical infrastructure from potential cyber attacks.
