As cloud computing has taken the business world by storm over the past few years, both security risks and safeguards have diversified to curb data breaches and protect consumer interests. Now, security responsibilities are being assigned to web developers, whose main focus has historically been scaling software applications, not necessarily security. For the evolving world of cloud computing it’s more important than ever for cloud providers to understand business clients, develop high-quality services, and make it as difficult as possible for threat actors to access secure data. These re the modern challenges security teams are tackling, according to TK Keanini (pictured), distinguished engineer and product line chief technology officer for analytics at computer networking provider Cisco Systems Inc.

“Anyone who has been in this business for the last 20, 25 years, I always joke and say, ‘Same circus; different clowns,'” Keanini said. “Security is everybody’s problem, and it certainly is the developer’s problem. So, the idea of providing security as a service to those developers is a new thing.”

Keanini spoke with John Furrier (@furrier) and Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the AWS Summit in NYC. They discussed the innovation of security with changing threat actors and new developments in computer networking infrastructure. (* Disclosure below.)

Disruption remains key

Where once threat actors were hackers sharing talents, now exists nation-states run like businesses, according to Keanini. “So if you do really good security, you’re essentially adding to their cost of operation. They don’t like that. It is really a business against a business. They think like a business, they’re well-resourced like a business, they’re patient, and sometimes they’re going after the weak,” he stated.

Threat actors are talented, in Keanini’s view, forcing constant innovation. “If I innovate, I force them to innovate. If they innovate, they force me to innovate,” he said. “Having more visibility than they do, having more detection than they do, and basically knowing yourself better than they do is absolutely critical.”

Moving forward, being able to detect changes native to the environment is important because the same alerts for security breaches are not going to sound, Keanini pointed out. So, the focus has become to look at improving analytics, not just improving errors. Anomalies must be found at the same level for virtual servers, containerized servers, and serverless alike, so security analytics continue to develop to protect web developer’s business continuity, he concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the AWS Summit in NYC. (* Disclosure: Amazon Web Services Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither AWS nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE