Identity is the new perimeter

As attackers evolve like swiftly agile startups, and AI enhances both the attack surface and our defence capabilities, Group CISO Dr. Yusuf Hashmi of the Jubilant Bhartia Group explains how the conglomerate embraced behavioural analytics, Zero Trust and machine-speed SOC responses to not just keep up, but stay ahead.

- By Aanchal Ghatak

In the last 12-18 months, what major changes have you seen in attacker behaviors, and which parts of your security stack are least able to keep up?

In the last 12-18 months, we have seen a marked increase in multi-phase, identity-centric attacks, including MFA fatigue, token theft, and initial access brokerage via infostealers. Adversaries now operate like nimble startups—reusing infrastructure and iterating campaigns in real-time.

The part of our stack that moved the least? Traditional SIEM and static detection definitions—which simply being unable to keep up with the evolving TTPs. We increasingly prefer behavioral analytics, identity protection platforms, and playbooks through automation for the agility to respond to and detect events.

How is your SOC preparing for the era where Al is used by both attackers and defenders?

Al has become a double-edged sword. Attackers are quickly leveraging LLMs for phishing at scale and using tools like WormGPT for evasion. On the defense side, we are doing the following to continue to enable our SOC to defend against similar threats: