Chris Poulin – Research Strategist for IBM’s X-Force Research & Development In theCUBE

Data is at the center of all security advancements. It fuels better data protection strategies, helps determine where the threats are coming from, and is the new perimeter that needs to be secured, according to Chris Poulin, the Research Strategist for IBM’s X-Force Research & Development team.

Poulin revealed that his organization tries to “gather data from just about everywhere” by crawling websites, looking for websites with malicious software, gathering spam, and trying to figure out who the bad guys are and what tactics they use. “We try to get ahead of the hackers,” he added.

In his live interview at IBM Insight 2014, Poulin told theCUBE hosts Dave Vellante and John Furrier that while mobile, cloud, and Internet of Things do generate more data to breach, they can also assist in protecting it. All of this extra data can be used to do analysis and determine what kind of security can be added, helping to determine who is accessing the phone, how is it calling other devices, etc. “That is what security does; it looks for anomalies among data that is supposed to be valid,” he said.

With data being the new perimeter, Poulin explained, “You need to be able to control the data, assess it. Unless we understand what the data is, we can’t protect it.” How do you protect the data is not the only question. Businesses must also figure out who tries to steal the data itself.

Watch the complete interview below, and watch all archived clips from the event on SiliconANGLE’s YouTube Channel here.

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