Real-Time Defence Becomes Cyber Frontline

BENGALURU: As cyberattacks grow faster and more complex—fuelled by artificial intelligence—security leaders are shifting from prevention to real-time detection and response, especially in always-on cloud environments. “Most organisations still lack visibility into their own environments,” said Rinki Sethi, chief information security officer at Upwind, a cloud security solutions company that recently raised $250 million in its Series B funding round. The company last week hosted a round table to highlight the need for real-time detection. “They don’t fully know what is running or how it is behaving,” she said. The shift is towards run-time security, which is the practice of monitoring and protecting applications while they are actively running, rather than reviewing them after the attack. Executives liken the change to securing a house: traditional tools show whether doors were locked earlier, while modern systems indicate which door is open right now. “The goal is to understand what is happening in real time, not hours later,” said Gavin Selkirk, vice president and general manager, Asia Pacific and Japan, Upwind. Artificial intelligence is accelerating both attack and defence capabilities, shrinking response windows. “AI is exploding and attackers today have access to the same technologies,” Sethi said. “The difference is speed. If you don’t detect and respond immediately, the damage is already done.” Even short delays can allow attackers to move deeper into systems, increasing the scale of impact and complicating recovery. To address this, companies are deploying tools that track behaviour continuously during operation. Such approaches help identify unusual activity quickly, rather than relying solely on pre-deployment checks that may miss threats emerging later. “It’s about being close to where the action is,” Selkirk said. Simarpreet Singh, country manager for India and SAARC at Upwind, said the company will focus on BFSI, manufacturing, and other high-risk sectors. It is setting up a development centre in Pune and will add engineers, sales, and marketing teams for its India operations. “Compliance is the key, and India data will reside in India,” he said. India is emerging as a key market, driven by rapid cloud adoption and stricter regulatory requirements. “Companies here are moving quickly, but that also increases the need for real-time security,” said Gaurav Nagar, head of information security and IT. Safety Net:Cybersecurity shifting from blocking attacks to detecting them faster.Many firms still do not know what is running inside their cloud environments.Attacks are becoming faster and more frequent with AI tools.Live monitoring emerging new security priority.Cloud growth and stricter regulations driving security adoption.



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