Palo Alto Networks CEO On The Changing Perception Towards Cybersecurity

2015 has been a year where the threat that cyber attacks pose has come to the fore. Mark McLaughlin, Palo Alto Networks Inc PANW Networks CEO, was on CNBC Friday to discuss how people's perception towards cybersecurity has changed and the relation between detection and prevention.

Fine Line Between Trust And Chaos

"I think what's really happening is people are starting to recognize is that we are living in a truly digital age," McLaughlin began. "And a digital age is built on trust, you trust your bank accounts, right? you trust the planes are going to fly in the right directions, you trust the electricity is going to come on when you flip the switch."

He continued, "And there's a lot of infrastructure there and there is a digital overlay on top of it and when you hear about all these breaches and things that are not working, it starts to really erode that trust. And there's a really fine line between trusting that things are going to work and chaos if you don't trust it's going to work and, I think, there's an assumption that we are on that line right now and we have to fix it."

Detection And Prevention Are Co-Related

McLaughlin highlighted how detection and prevention of a cybersecurity breach are co-related, saying, "They are every related concepts. So, we talk a lot about preventive mindsets and that includes detection. The reality of an attack is that an attack has to do a number of things correct in order for it to succeed, not just one thing, not just get in."

"It has to move through your network, it has to find the data, it has to get data out. And any point of that where you could detect the fact that somebody may be in the network, but hasn't completely executed the attack is a prevention opportunity to stop it there," McLaughlin said.