speed with which malicious hackers now generate new viruses to test
vulnerabilities, declares Arthur Coviello, president of RSA, the
security division of EMC Corp. "By the time a security company sees it and figures out an anti-virus [software fix], there are 30 more viruses."
Coviello is not giving up on winning. His point is that security must evolve beyond protecting a network's perimeters--hard points to determine as big data centers interconnect more frequently. And there are ever more types of devices for accessing a network. Security must be augmented with a means of organizing and protecting the most critical data in a system, he says, by putting that software into the management layer that controls the core of the system, and having it guard the most vital information. That way even if attackers penetrate the system the most important stuff is protected with security software that, among other features, looks for anomalies in the way the data are being used--such as, for example, if someone is seeking to transfer sensitive files to previously unknown computers in Latvia.
According to Coviello, ensuring that key data are protected by a close tie to the management layer of a data center is not something a security company can do on its own but only in conjunction with a larger provider of software and services for the network. In this world, he says, "there is no reason for an independent security industry to exist." (Forbes, ChannelWeb)
Interestingly, McAfee's CEO happens to be a former EMC exec.
