Commentary: Next-Gen Observability Strategies Crucial to Protecting Critical Infrastructure

Bill Rowan, vice president of public sector at U.S. software company Splunk, has called on federal agencies seeking to defend critical infrastructure to prioritize next-generation observability strategies and tools.

Observability involves the use of logs, metrics and traces for proactive threat mitigation. Rowan said observability strategies could enhance digital resilience by identifying vulnerabilities, optimizing mitigation and providing active insights for incident prevention.

Modern monitoring tools are critical, as the absence of technology to match evolving threats hampers resilience, Rowan, a 4×24 member, added in the commentary that Federal News Network published.

The Splunk VP noted that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency called for enhanced monitoring tools after Chinese hackers exploited a Microsoft Azure vulnerability in order to hack into federal agencies, aligning with the National Cybersecurity Strategy‘s call to fortify critical infrastructure.

Challenges include the public sector’s use of multiple non-interoperable tools, creating data silos and blind spots and legacy tools designed for specific tech stacks, creating guesswork for engineers interpreting alerts, Rowan said.