Jon AbbottNo Device Unseen, No Risk Unmanaged

At Tech Show London last week, our CEO Jon joined Agwu from Aquila Advisory Group to discuss a critical but often overlooked reality in cybersecurity: what you can't see absolutely can hurt you.

The stats speak for themselves. According to IBM's 2024 Cost of a Data Breach Report, the average cost of a data breach has jumped to USD 4.88 million, a 10% spike from the previous year and the highest increase since the pandemic. Despite significant investments in security tools, organisations continue to face breaches because of one fundamental issue: the gap between assumed protection and actual security control deployment.

Understanding the Cybersecurity Protection Gap

Jon and Agwu focused on the "Cybersecurity Protection Gap"—the dangerous space between what you think is protected and what's actually secured. This gap emerges in three common scenarios:

1. Missing Controls: Our data shows that typically, 10% of devices completely lack essential security controls. These are the equivalent of unlocked doors in your security perimeter.
2. Configuration Faults: Another 20% of devices have security tools that are improperly configured—like having a sophisticated alarm system that nobody remembered to activate.
3. Non-Functioning Controls: Perhaps most concerning, about 3% of security controls are deployed but not actually functioning—the digital equivalent of a security guard who's asleep on the job.

The hard truth? Assumptions about your security posture can be dangerously misleading without proper validation.

The Hidden Reality: What You Can't See Can Hurt You

Cyber attackers specifically target hidden vulnerabilities that organisations often overlook. This "hidden reality" underscores the importance of:

• Full Visibility: Knowing every device on your network is the first step toward mitigating risk. Without a complete inventory, you leave gaps that attackers can exploit.
• Action-Driven Remediation: Simply knowing about a vulnerability isn't enough. The focus must be on taking concrete steps to remediate issues once identified.

The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Cybersecurity

AI has a dual impact on cybersecurity:

• Scaling Attacks: Cyber attackers are leveraging AI to increase the pace and sophistication of their attacks.
• Enhanced Protection: Organisations can harness AI for better threat detection and automated remediation.

AI-driven attacks demand a proactive, automated approach to security management.

Moving from Visibility to Remediation

Jon and Agwu emphasised a crucial shift in mindset: Security teams must move beyond simply seeing problems to actively solving them. Here's the proven four-step approach we discussed:

1. Discover Every Asset: Establish a single source of truth for all devices accessing your corporate data—not just the ones you already know about. Our customers typically discover 15-30% more devices than they initially thought existed.
2. Verify Unique Identities: Use advanced correlation techniques to eliminate duplicate records. Accuracy is essential for effective remediation—you can't secure what you can't correctly identify. This data integrity forms the foundation for all successful security actions.
3. Validate Control Health in Real-Time: Don't just check that security tools are installed; verify they're functioning correctly and configured properly. As Agwu emphasised during our discussion, "The assumption of security is often the biggest vulnerability."
4. Automate Remediation: Implement workflows that automatically address vulnerabilities when they're detected—not weeks later during the next security review.

Cyber Asset Intelligence: Validation vs. Assumption

A critical lesson from our discussion is the need for rigorous validation. It's not enough to assume that security measures are in place or effective. Cyber Asset Intelligence calls for a proactive approach:

• Assess Your Security Visibility Gap: Benchmark your organisation's security using frameworks like Cyber Essentials, ISO 27001, and NIST CSF. Quantifying derived risk helps prioritise critical remediation needs.
• Continuous Improvement: Adopt a mindset of continuous improvement—connect, discover, and protect your assets proactively.

From Insight to Action

As Jon emphasised during Tech Show London, "You cannot secure what you cannot see, and you cannot trust what you cannot verify." Ready to close your cybersecurity protection gap? Book a trial to see and close your security gaps today.