It's no secret that the topic of security currently sits atop nearly every priority list in the professional world. Companies are making calculated, adjacent security efforts to protect the data they gather, the products they develop and the actions of their people. While ages-old security measures came in the form of locks and safes, today's techniques are far more advanced and protect against unseen and often undetectable risk. Hackers have developed multi-vector threats that are often difficult to detect since they combine multiple threat characteristics that bypass traditional security measures. Shutting off your computer and locking it in a safe isn't going to save you from these attacks. Your protection techniques must evolve with the attackers.

As you can imagine, the playing field for threat factors grows every day. Hackers and cyber predators take advantage of users through every avenue possible—even those once deemed safe. Take for example that 50 percent of global web traffic was encrypted as of October 2017. Encryption is meant to enhance security, but it also provides malicious actors with a powerful tool to conceal command-and-control activity. Those actors then have more time to inflict damage while undetected because, unfortunately, encryption also reduces visibility. More enterprises are therefore turning to machine learning and artificial intelligence for protection. With these capabilities, they can spot unusual patterns in large volumes of encrypted web traffic. Security teams can then investigate further with more time to spare.

Other threats include malware, phishing and ransomware, which are often hosted on domains that are classified as malicious. Why not just plan to avoid those domains? That's the tricky part, some domains host both malicious and safe content — we consider these "risky" domains. These sites often allow users to upload and share content — making them difficult to police. If you're keeping count, ransomware represents the most significant threat. Companies are losing access to their critical data only to find out that they are being extorted by criminals who require payment to release the information that is being held hostage. A quick Google search will display a scarily long list of recent ransomware attacks that have found even the most untouchable brands begging for help. While these attacks are most prevalent on employee laptops, ransomware is now targeting departmental file servers and other critical infrastructure.

Let's Get Protected!

With all of today's active threats, it's easy to imagine how many protection platforms, products and vendors there are out there. Unsurprisingly, due to increased adoption in industries like healthcare, defense, government and banking, the cyber security market is projected to reach $165.2 billion by the year 2023. With thousands of options, it's hard to choose the one that's right for you, your existing infrastructure and for your customers. One of the issues we have seen arise often occurs when companies employ multiple security vendors, all struggling to work together. When was the last time 50 different vendors made anything simpler rather than more complicated? Would you fly in a plane made out of pieces from 50 different planes? The inherent problem with this multiple vendor approach lies in the fact that it only benefits the vendors. The more products you add to your security stack, the less value you actually get. We call this the security effectiveness gap, and the design is very simple: as you add more solutions that don't work together, the complexity exponentially increases. Every time you add another solution or another vendor, you add another gap - another vulnerability. Why does this happen? Most security solutions aren't made to work together. And ultimately, you end up stuck between two tough choices: become a solution integrator and try to stitch everything together or add (yet another!) solution to fill in the gap. Sometimes you have to do both. Neither works. It's a cruel, vicious cycle. Our suggestion? Find one vendor who covers everything you need.

Enter Cisco Security

Cisco Security is simple, open and automated. Cisco's integrated security portfolio takes the burden off of teams and detects and remediates threats faster-because when you're working against hackers, speed matters. The products work together to deliver effective network security, incident response, and heightened IT productivity through automation. Cisco Security innovations protect customers, employees, and brands by providing everything you need in one place: highly secure firewalls, web, and email services, cloud security, ASAs and more. It's time for simple, effective security.

ScanSource KBZ is ready to get you on the path to selling Cisco Security Solutions. The latest addition to our FASTPATH partner enablement program is Vault, a security training specifically designed to start or accelerate your security practice. Vault provides basic knowledge of how to position, sell and use the three key Cisco Security Solutions (AMP, Umbrella and NGFW) that have been proven to work synergistically together and lead to realized revenue the fastest. Vault also provides you with tangible next steps to get certified, and begin selling the products that will help you recognize profitable revenue the fastest.

Plan to take on Cisco's Fire Jumper courses? Get Started with Vault.

Cisco's Fire Jumper Program is designed to enable partner SEs to lead customer opportunities within a competency area. Upon completion, these SEs can lead customer engagements from sizing, scoping, and design through demonstration and proof-of-value. It is an extremely deep dive into Security that is meant to polish one's skill set. This starting point isn't for everyone, that's why we created Vault. Vault addresses the knowledge base needed to be successful, and provides access to ScanSource Jumpstart MOU designed to help net new security partners ramp up their practice with targeted milestones, and marketing dollars. Until now, partners have been limited to 'jumping into the deep end' with Cisco's Fire Jumper without any prior knowledge or expertise in security. Through Vault, we are providing a stepping-stone to help partners build up their knowledge base prior to the more product intensive, deep dive that attendees will find with Cisco's Fire Jumper.

Ready to Get Started?

The next steps are simple. First, become a registered partner with ScanSource KBZ. Next, attend Vault training - it's just 3.5 hours of your time and it's offered every other week. Register here. From there you will be able to sign a JumpStart MOU, become a Select partner (with the help of ScanSource) and attend and graduate from Cisco's Fire Jumper Academy to start selling Cisco Security.

Want more? We're hosting a webinar on March 22nd at 2pm EST with Cisco to introduce you to Cisco's Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) for Endpoints, and show you how it goes beyond traditional anti-virus software. You'll walk away from this webinar with the information you need to increase profitability by expanding your portfolio organically with security. Register for the webinar here. Take a look at Cisco's 2018 Annual Cybersecurity Report.