Security is the "new" Healthcare

Eight years ago I was introduced to the Healthcare industry by  Lisa Suennen (@VentureValkyrie). Three years ago I was introduced to the Security market by TM Ravi (@tmravi) of The Hive. On the eve of RSA I can’t help but notice the parallels. Healthcare not only inspires security practitioners but serves as a model for how the industry must evolve.

First the similarities:

There is an adversary: In healthcare we attempt to outsmart nature. In security we attempt to outsmart the human mind. Security is the only segment within IT that has an active adversary. This creates a cycle of innovation unlike any other in technology.

The threat is polymorphic: Pathogens or, more specifically, viruses mutate. No surprise that the earliest form of electronic security intruders were called viruses. The most sophisticated worms and malware excel at having evasive qualities.

Countermeasures require thoughtful approaches: Drug development is time-consuming. An architecture may or may not work. The efficacy and side-effects (including false positives) are theoretical at design time. Re-vectoring mid-stream can be costly and in some cases impractical.   

Disruption is the norm: The Pharma industry evolved from large molecule to small molecule approaches. From chemicals to biologics. Security solutions have their own half-lives, and have seen the rise and eroding relevance of stateful analysis and signature-based virus detection.

Security model going forward: 

In 2006 HHS projected that Healthcare costs in the US would approach $4 Trillion or almost 20% of US GDP, in 2016. Expenditures have grown at a slower rate with the 2014 number at $3 Trillion. So what happened? Many things but two stand out – gradual integration of care and a focus on outcomes.

Security also needs to evolve. The 1,000+ vendors competing for attention at RSA will undoubtedly promise better efficacy and disruptive approaches. Customers, anxious about the threat landscape, will deploy some of them. But in healthcare terms, it is the equivalent of taking 50 pills a day with minimal coordination amongst them - each promising a “point” outcome but each creating a side effect of its own.

Marty Roesch from Cisco Security has talked about the notion of the “Golden Hour” in healthcare – care administered quickly drives better outcomes. At Cisco we are focused on driving similar security outcomes – reduce the time to detect and drive faster, more effective remediation via an integrated threat defense architecture. We think our customers will be better and healthier for it.