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ZDNET's key takeaways
Attacks on enterprise networks are becoming more frequent.
Cybercriminals are using AI, but humans remain the weakest link.
Defending against attacks requires structural changes to the network.
Here's the paradox of modern cyberwarfare: Increasingly, the attackers are using machines that can work orders of magnitude faster than the humans who control them. In response, the targets are increasingly turning to automated systems to detect and repel those intruders.
But in this machine-versus-machine combat, humans remain the center of each battle, and we mere mortals continue to be the weak point. That's the conclusion of this year's survey of the enterprise security landscape from Mandiant, a US cybersecurity firm -- now part of Google Cloud -- that specializes in investigating major global security breaches and advising organizations on how to protect themselves from cyber threats.
Also: Stopping bugs before they ship: The shift to preventative security
Modern enterprise networks are widely distributed and can hand off tasks to partners via software-as-a-service. The bad guys are doing the same thing, according to Mandiant, using a "division of labor" model: one group uses low-impact techniques like malicious advertisements or fake browser updates to gain access to a network, then hands off the compromised target to a secondary group for hands-on access.
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