Government IT leaders says that the growth of Big Data analytics can help agencies to better understand network security, and lead to the development of new tools to combat cybersecurity threats, according to a new report from MeriTalk.

Based on conversations with IT leaders from 18 federal government agencies with expertise in Big Data, cybersecurity and network operations, “Balancing the Cyber Big Data Equation” reveals how agencies are keen to explore opportunities that arise from the intersection of Big Data and cybersecurity initiatives.

MeriTalk spoke with experts from agencies including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), NASA and others to look at the emerging interplay between Big Data and cybersecurity, noting a rapid shift to virtual desktop infrastructures (VDI) and the deployment of “cloud hubs”, or private cloud infrastructure. In addition, these agencies are also expanding into the cloud, particularly with analytics-as-a-service, to achieve greater data centralization and to support Big Data implementations.

The report notes that continuous monitoring and advanced analytics is affording agencies an “unprecedented understanding of their networks and security posture,” leading to a requirement for dashboards capable of aggregating data from multiple analytical tools.

“The technology that enables large-scale data analytics is rapidly evolving and still relatively expensive. Successive waves of hardware and software innovation in this space will drive out complexity and cost over time,” notes Joseph Hungate, principal deputy inspector general of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

In future it’s hoped that “intelligent analytics”, software capable of asking and answering questions of data, and providing alerts, without the need for human intervention, could one day do away with the need for skilled data scientists. For now though, most agencies admit that they don’t have anything that’s capable of doing this at the same degree of efficiency as humans can.

A number of recommendations were made to agencies, based on feedback from agency IT experts, in the report:

• Develop a comprehensive enterprise information architecture strategy that incorporates both big data and cybersecurity.
• Ensure that the agency adequately classifies the risk level of its data analytics and takes steps to mitigate risks.
• Invest in tools to apply analytics to continuously monitor data.
• Test dashboards that offer new insights and help track the return on investment for big data and cyber efforts.

The report comes at a time when the government is expressing huge interest in the rise of Big Data. In January, the Obama administration launched its own review of the rise of Big Data and how it affects privacy. The investigation is being carried out by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology , which is due to provide a comprehensive report encompassing future trends in computer technology, answering key questions about the availability, collection and handling of Big Data.

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