In Depth

Information Security Defense In Depth Lessons (from a Bronze-Age Fort)

What can the Information Age learn about defense-in-depth from a 3,000-year-old Irish fort? Plenty.

By Scott Berinato

Prepare for the Unknown. One of the challenges of information security today is that new attacks are constantly being invented. Part of defending networks is defending against unknown adversaries. We like to think this is a thoroughly modern problem.

Yet, every day at Dun Aengus the sun would sink behind the crisp horizon of the vast sea, "and they literally didn't know what, if anything, was behind the sun, and what may come from beyond to attack them," Cotter says, imagining Bronze Age souls sitting at the cliff's precipice, staring out in wonder.

"And they prepared in that way. Knowing they had to defend against the unknown. Knowing," she says in a diluted County Cork accent, "there be monsters!"

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