Homeland Security Foundation of America Calls for New Cybersecurity Approach with Focus on Faster Vulnerability Identification and Remediation

Atlanta, GA, December 16, 2015 --(PR.com)-- Today the Homeland Security Foundation of America (HSFA) (www.hsfamerica.org) announced plans to lead the charge in developing new standards for cybersecurity, releasing a white paper it hopes will help change the conversation about cyber threats in America.

HSFA’s Office of Public Safety (Cybersecurity Division) took a critical look at the current cybersecurity landscape and found that, even using many best-of-breed technologies, it still takes security managers an average 360 days to find and fix cyber vulnerabilities, leaving a huge gap in the safeguards and security programs of agencies, organizations and businesses nationwide.

HSFA officials say it’s important the public consider the possibility that today’s approach to cybersecurity is just not working. One of the key areas HSFA makes recommendations on is the method of deployment for modern cybersecurity tools. While most tools scan for known vulnerabilities against live production environments, HSFA recommends leveraging virtualization to assess vulnerabilities outside production environments, increasing effectiveness, reducing detection time, and avoiding costly disruptions to business operations.

“The world is changing, and new threats are uncovered daily, so we have to change the way we think about cybersecurity,” said Eric Brown, President, HSFA. “We believe cyber-attacks, like other types of routine crime, are used as fundraisers to fuel terrorist activities around the globe. As threats and attacks increase in sophistication and frequency, it’s imperative we take a critical look at the standards, regulations and policies that drive security best practices. Reducing the time to detect and defend against a threat is the first step to real-time remediation. With billions more in losses to cyber theft year over year, we have to identify the risk, remediate the exploit, and do it faster and better than ever before.”

Brown continued saying new standards that require the use of security virtualization will help solutions providers deliver proactive, continuous protection, drastically reducing vulnerability identification and remediation time to less than 24 hours.

“In my experience, expedient cybersecurity vulnerability and threat remediation is of utmost concern to our country’s leadership and critical infrastructure,” said Major David VanAssche (Ret.), Fmr. Chief Mission Director, Air Force One. “The White House Military Office is dedicated to Operations and Information Technology Management, which if compromised would be devastating. While serving the President as part of the Presidential Airlift Group, we were diligent about every threat and cybersecurity solutions to help IT provide essential services to the President.”

In a new white paper, “Cybersecurity Requirements for Maintaining a Secure Homeland,” HSFA strongly recommends developing new standards that require organizations to deploy continuous security delivery fabric-based technologies that leverage virtualization alongside existing security investments. Under its current cybersecurity initiative, HSFA reviewed several security solutions. Of the tools researched, the organization says it found Cybric (www.cybric.io) to be a solution that already meets many of the requirements that should drive the cybersecurity best-practices of the future. A copy of the White Paper can be accessed via the following URL:

http://www.hsfamerica.org/2015/12/hsfa-white-paper-continuous-security-delivery-platforms-identified-as-best-method-for-expedient-vulnerability-identification-and-threat-remediation/#comments

As HSFA furthers its cybersecurity mission, the organization invites industry experts, solutions providers, agencies and organizations to collaborate on developing new standards for cyber safeguards and security programs; standards HSFA believes will help win the war on America’s technology infrastructures.

The Homeland Security Foundation of America ("HSFA") is a public, non-profit organization incorporated in Georgia in 2002 and reorganized under IRC 501(c)(3) with 170(b)(1)(A)(vi) status. Its mission is to advance Homeland Security while preserving Americans' civil liberties through life-saving public safety, energy and health and human services programs. For more information about HSFA’s work, visit http://www.hsfamerica.org. HSFA is not a government agency. For the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), visit http://www.dhs.gov.