Adam YeomansWhy Reactive Security is not Enough

Get Ahead of the Curve

Organisations that remain reactive in their cybersecurity approach are not equipped for the contemporary threat landscape. This includes Hacktivist groups, Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS), and what seems to be all the rage: AI-generated phishing content.

The uncomfortable truth is that many security teams still operate with significant blind spots; reacting to incidents only after the damage is done. This reactive approach isn't just inefficient. It's dangerously outdated as cyber threats become more advanced and harder to detect.

Fortunately, the tides are turning: forward-thinking organisations are leveraging comprehensive data analytics and real-time monitoring of their estate to transform their security posture from reactive to genuinely proactive.

Stop Chasing your Tail

Cyber leaders are conforming to the fact that recovery should be prioritised over prevention. Painting a sobering picture, IBM research found:

• 35% of breaches involved shadow data, which highlights the risks of poor asset visibility and the growing challenge of managing unknown or untracked devices.

• The average breach goes undetected for over 250 days, giving attackers ample time to escalate access, exfiltrate data, and embed themselves deep within environments.

• Only 12% of companies fully recovered from their data breaches, reinforcing the harsh reality that relying on recovery over prevention can leave lasting damage. Statistics from IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024

This response-centric model traps security teams in a perpetual game of catch-up, focused on cleaning up after incidents rather than stopping them at the source. In a landscape where threat actors evolve daily, this simply isn’t good enough.

While traditional security operations centres (SOCs) excel at incident response, they often lack the data-driven capabilities needed to anticipate and counter threats before they materialise.

Beyond Traditional Threat Intelligence

Traditional threat intelligence provides valuable insights but suffers from critical limitations:

• It focuses primarily on known threats rather than emerging attack patterns

• Most platforms provide information without actionable steps

• Analysis typically occurs after suspicious activity has already begun The result? Security teams receive an overwhelming volume of threat data without the analytical framework or processes needed to turn it into preventative action.

Attitude is Key

Shifting to a proactive security posture requires a mindset shift: fundamentally rethinking how we collect, analyse, and act upon security data. Let’s start at the top:

1. Comprehensive Asset Intelligence Proactive security starts with complete visibility. A standard ThreatAware trial deployment reveals 70% of devices in a typical environment are fully protected, leaving a significant 30% gap in controls. Modern approaches address this by providing:

• Real-time discovery of all devices interacting with corporate data

• Automated validation of your chosen security controls across every asset

• Continuous monitoring for configuration drift and policy violations

Without full confidence that you know every device interacting with your digital environment, how can you know when a breach has taken place?

2. Real-time Monitoring & Reporting

Proactive security moves beyond static Excel sheets and siloed console checks, instead leveraging live, cross-platform analysis to detect subtle indicators of emerging security gaps:

• Clear and interactive dashboards optimise behaviours for users, devices, and applications

• Live analysis identifies deviations from normal patterns and triggers automated alerts/remediation

• Migrations are easy to track and manage due to the combination of data and process This approach shifts detection earlier in the attack chain, because all devices are fully updated and monitored continuously.

3. Automated Responses

When security gaps are identified, proactive systems don't just generate alerts, they orchestrate responses:

• Automated workflows implement response action as soon as a trigger goes off

• Continuous feedback loops allow anomalies to be spotted within global environments, and acted upon accordingly

This integration between detection and response dramatically reduces, and in most cases nullifies, the time attackers have to operate within your environment.

The Future of Proactive Security

As threat actors continue to evolve, the most effective security teams will be those that leverage all available data to move earlier in the attack chain – identifying and disrupting threats before they escalate.

Companies that embrace this data-driven approach will transform security from a reactive resource sink to a proactive business enabler; protecting not just systems, but the organisation's ability to innovate and grow.

“Organisations that use AI and automation extensively for prevention saw the biggest impact from their AI investments, saving an average of $2.22 million over those without AI in prevention technologies.” Statistic from IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024

Take Action Today

Moving from reactive to proactive security requires deliberate steps:

1. Assess Your Current Visibility: Can you confidently identify every asset in your environment? Are you aware of all security control gaps?

2. Review Response Automation: What percentage of security gaps require manual intervention? How can we reduce the time of an exposed misconfiguration?

3. Examine Your Tool Integration and Communication: Are security consoles connected or siloed? Can your analysts access comprehensive data when investigating potential threats?

By addressing these questions, you lay the foundation for proactive security operations powered by comprehensive data analytics.

The cybersecurity landscape is constantly shifting, but one thing is clear: organisations that use data to predict threats, not just react to them, are the ones best equipped to defend their critical assets.

Are you ready to transform your security operations from reactive to proactive? Get in touch today.