May 6, 2015: Cyber Criminals attempt attacks on organizations every day for capital gains, especially the smaller and vulnerable ones who cannot spend huge on security. Big ones always make a news and gets breathers from all corners anyway. Most often, these attacks catch the victim organization off-guard, or under prepared. While cyber criminals do engage in random attacks, often, the victim has been targeted. In these cases, the hacker has most likely been plotting the attack for quite a while and knows their target perfectly. They know what they’re searching for, and over the past few years, these criminals have become more innovative in their approaches. By using new methods, they have been able to shake up even the most secure organizations and create malicious chaos.

As advanced threats continue, the need for holistic, multi-layered threat prevention becomes increasingly critical. The different layers of a security solution must work together cohesively to detect, announce and prevent attacks, and to protect organizations from the most crafty of threats. A key element in this solution is dynamic, real-time collaboration and threat intelligence.

Cyber-criminals are teaming up to exchange exploits and malware, posing a greater threat than they ever had before. Possibly the most dangerous thing about them is that they’re working together every day: coordinating attacks via social / mainstream media, buying and selling malware and sharing information on new attack methods. Collaboration is their greatest asset. As criminal networks expand at a dangerous rate, organizations need to come together to combat these profiteering cyber villains.

Collaboration is a hackers’ strongest asset, so why can’t it also be the strongest asset to combat cyber-crime? Organizations and communities must collaborate as well, sharing both threat data and new methods to fight these evil daemons. It’s almost impossible for a single organization to have a complete picture of the threat landscape, so working together to share real-time knowledge is the most effective route to full protection. Collaboration and threat intelligence are essential pieces to achieve a multi-layered threat prevention strategy.