In many of today’s organizations, network security is like a jigsaw puzzle.
They put point solutions in place, like a firewall manager or vulnerability scanner, to solve a specific problem or pain point for the network or security team. This has worked well for many years, but recently, this has created silos between teams, causing a communication gap – and opening organizations up to attacks. Many executives anticipate a giant wave of generative AI attacks coming in 2025, and they can no longer focus solely on each team’s individual needs. They must do more.
They must do more to understand their environment and have full network visibility. They must do more to maximize the efficacy of their teams and do more with less. They must do more to keep their critical data and assets secure.
Our tried-and-true organizational structure is letting us down. In 2025, organizations must remove the silos and close these gaps.
The silo effect
Having point solutions has helped solve individual and often team-specific problems but has left these same teams now working in silos. So, it’s not surprising that more than half (55%) of security experts are concerned about the risk of a security incident due to a lack of collaboration between network and security teams. While the disconnect between these critical functions has long been a vulnerability, the escalating sophistication of AI-powered threats will make it impossible to ignore. Cybercriminals increasingly leverage AI and automation to launch highly adaptive attacks that traditional, siloed defenses simply can’t handle.
The need for integration has never been more urgent.
Here’s why…
Say your organization identifies a vulnerability in your environment. Then, you must examine the vulnerability and determine if it’s exploitable. Is there a method and a mechanism to take advantage of that vulnerability in your environment? This often includes incorporating threat intelligence that says this set of groups is exploiting these kinds of things, etc.
Usually, these questions are under the purview of the team that runs vulnerability management, application security, and maybe even security operations.
But the third – and perhaps the most interesting thing to consider – is whether the asset with the known, exploitable vulnerability is accessible. Is there a path through your network allowing a nefarious actor to get to it? If you have a vulnerability that’s both exploitable and clearly open, but there’s no path to get to it, it’s not something you have to jump on right away. But if they can – then that’s where you need to focus your attention.
But understanding the network topology often falls to the network team. And they aren’t as concerned about vulnerabilities, because they’re busy managing the complexities of their networks. Without communication or shared systems between the network and security teams, this valuable data is not shared.
And that’s where the most significant disconnect lies. And why, in 2025, these silos between teams need to dissipate. By removing the silos and working together, organizations will achieve a more integrated, collaborative approach that improves threat visibility, detection, and response times.
A continuous exposure management platform will collect and aggregate security, policy, and infrastructure data from your infrastructure and cloud environments to provide a single source of truth. Teams work from the same tool, where they can enable network security automation and better assess, prioritize, and remediate the cyber threats that matter most across their hybrid attack surface.
In 2025, it will be imperative that organizations collaborate more and remove the silos to stay ahead of the evolving threat landscape.
