Brad Medairy, Booz Allen Hamilton, sits with Dave Vellante and John Walls at Splunk .conf 2017 in Washington, D.C #splunkconf17 #theCUBE https://siliconangle.com/2017/11/27/best-defense-good-offense-case-new-data-security-platforms-splunkconf17/ The best defense is a good offense: The case for new data security platforms Damaging news reports of data breaches at familiar companies like Uber Technologies Inc. and Equifax Inc. are scaring enterprises straight. The anxiety is good for business in the cybersecurity technology sector. The big data security software market is expected to swell from 2016’s $10.63 Billion to $26.85 Billion by 2022. But it’s not like the goats in the headlines weren’t using cyber defense tech. Are the new products any better? How can information technology and security teams convince C-level executives their investments will be worth it? “The problem is, at the end of the day, the adversaries live in the seams,” says Brad Medairy (pictured), senior vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. Vendors may hone individual security tools to be very good at a given, well-defined task, he said. But any missed spots are exploitable by attackers who can slip into the thinnest cracks. Nevertheless, cleverly-marketed security software finds plenty of takers in well-meaning security pros. At industry powwows like the RSA security conference, “I watch a lot of folks in the space walking around with a shopping cart. And they meet all these great vendors, and they have all these shiny pebbles,” Medairy said. Chief security officers walk away thinking they’ve procured the silver bullet, at last; that if they implement this tool or technology, they’re good to go, he said. “And I think we all know that’s not the case.” Mediary related his lessons on what effective security looks like in an interview at Splunk .conf2017 in Washington, D.C. His years fighting terrorism led to his faith in the data-centric approach. Fighting adversaries at the data level, instead of within parameters set by specific tools, is a more advanced approach, he said. “All these tools work really well — within their own ecosystem,” he told John Walls (@JohnWalls21) and Dave Vellante (@dvellante), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio. “But as soon as you start to mix and match best-of-breed tools and capabilities, they tend to not play well together.” (* Disclosure below.)