Intelligence Is Vital to Protecting Company Assets, Says Verint VP

When assessing risks, it is important to take into account not just the assets that you have but who might want to attack them, according to Yitzhak (Itzik) Vager, vice president of cyber product management and business development at Nasdaq-listed surveillance and business Intelligence company Verint Systems Inc. Vager spoke Monday at Calcalist’s Cyber 2020 conference, held at shared office venture Labs at Tel Aviv’s Azrieli Sarona tower.

An organization that has a limited budget has to prioritize the use of its cybersecurity resources and this can only be done using intelligence and research, Vager said. Earlier this year, Verint published an extensive report on more than 500 cyberattacks from 60 hacking groups using a wide range of tools and techniques.

The report attempted to profile likely attackers, according to the relevant sector and available intelligence, Vager said. “If a cybercriminal is after money, they are likely operating as part of a Russian group,” he said. What we do is identify the attacker and the techniques they are using, in order to focus the organization’s defense efforts, he explained.