As tech innovation reshapes industries, the need for robust cybersecurity for digital transformation becomes critical to protect organizational infrastructure.

Organizations need to proactively address security vulnerabilities rather than just reacting to incidents as they occur. Understanding and managing the attack surface, focusing on managing vulnerabilities and risks, and intelligently and effectively remediating are key to protecting an organization’s security, according to Curtis Simpson (pictured, left), chief information security officer and chief advocacy officer of Armis Inc.

Armis CISO Curtis Simpson and CTO Nadir Izrael talk with theCUBE about cybersecurity.

“Visibility isn’t even the problem necessarily anymore,” he said. “It’s about understanding what I have, but then what should I actually do that matters to the business now, because the reality is there’s too many problems sitting in front of us to actually solve them all. We have to pick the ones we need to solve today, and then tomorrow we need to pick the ones we need to solve that day — and on and on and on.”

Simpson and Nadir Izrael (right), co-founder and chief technology officer of Armis, spoke with theCUBE Research’s Dave Vellante at the RSA Conference, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed addressing the global concern of critical infrastructure security by prioritizing and mitigating cyber threats. (* Disclosure below.)

Cybersecurity for digital transformation in the age of tech innovation

Understanding the intersection of technology and business context is crucial for making smart decisions and reducing potential damage, and the growth of the platform comes from addressing this problem statement, according to Simpson.

“It’s not just understanding what I need to do today, but what could disrupt the business in the most material capacity possible, and how do I direct my resources and attention towards that,” Simpson said. “Much of what we’re doing is bringing that context together in one place such that you can make those smart decisions because there is no silver bullet, there’s no single control, there’s no single perimeter. It is about understanding where could the most damage be done and what to do to reduce that damage.”

Armis is addressing the global concern of critical infrastructure security, focusing on understanding the attack surface and prioritizing efforts to manage and secure interconnected operational technology, according to Izrael.

“I would say that it starts with understanding that attack surface. To your point, it’s vast, it’s dynamic, it’s complex, but that doesn’t mean it’s unmeasurable,” Izrael said. “It doesn’t mean that you can’t have an intelligence understand it and still be able to point to what are the three holes that if I closed in that attack surface, I could be that much more protected than I was before.”

Understanding and proactively applying the right mitigations is crucial for defending critical infrastructure against cyberattacks, especially in a hybrid world of legacy and new technologies, Simpson explained.

“It’s about mitigations. It’s about understanding what you have. It’s about understanding where you’re exposed,” he said. “Then it’s about understanding how to proactively apply the right mitigations so I can actually defend this water treatment facility … you name it, energy grid, against these types of attacks so that we’re able to safeguard the citizens and all these capabilities that rely on them.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE Research’s coverage of the RSA Conference:

(* Disclosure: Armis Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Armis nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE