On August 29, 2016, MeriTalk, a public-private partnership that works on government Information Technology (“IT”) issues, released a report titled “Navigating the Cybersecurity Equation.”  The report examines how federal agencies use big data analytics in connection with battling cybersecurity threats (the “Cybersecurity Report”).  MeriTalk surveyed 150 federal IT managers in researching the Cybersecurity Report, which found that 81 percent of federal government agencies said their agency uses big data analytics for some cybersecurity-related work.  Nonetheless, data breaches remain a vulnerability; 59 percent of agencies reported that “their agency deals with a cybersecurity compromise at least once a month due to its inability to fully analyze data.” 

The Cybersecurity Report notes that there has been a significant increase in the use of big data analytics—generally, the examination of large volumes of data for trends or patterns—by federal agencies since 2013.  Still, practically harnessing big data remains an uphill battle; the Cybersecurity Report states that “[f]ewer than half of those using big data for cybersecurity (45 percent) say they trust their efforts to be highly effective.”  A majority of agencies reported that the task of gleaning cybersecurity intelligence from vast quantities of data has grown more difficult in the last two years, with survey respondents pointing to challenges like the lack of proper systems to gather cybersecurity information effectively.

Despite these difficulties, the survey found that “[n]early all of big data users (90 percent) have seen a decline in security breaches as a result of using big data and analytics.”  Further, 84 percent of big data users reported being able to successfully thwart a cyber-attack by deploying big data.  The Cybersecurity Report states that federal agencies said “big data is having the most significant impact on advanced threat detection, network monitoring, and authentication” and 94 percent intend to further invest in big data initiatives in the coming years. 

The Cybersecurity Report concludes by indicating that, if big data analytics are effectively used, federal agencies “agree they can improve protection from internal and external cybersecurity threats.”  Accordingly, agencies “must focus on securing the infrastructure, tools, and training necessary” to realize the benefits of big data analytics.