International Computer Security Day is this year a Sunday, November 30. Computer security has transformed dramatically over the past three decades. What once looked more like punk rock rebellion, with viruses passed around on floppy disks, worms unleashed for notoriety and hacktivism pursued for a cause, has matured into organised crime, writes Adam Winston, Field CTO, WatchGuard Technologies.
Today, according to Canalys, ransomware is the number one fear for small businesses. But will it stay that way? For years, the cybersecurity industry relied on firewalls at the perimeter and antivirus software on endpoints to stop direct technical intrusions. These tools were effective in their time; however, over the last 30 years, they have gradually unified into stronger, faster detection and response platforms.
But attackers have changed their tactics. Instead of just breaking through technology, they exploit people. Phishing campaigns, social engineering and insider threats bypass traditional defences using human behaviour, not technical exploits. This changes the role of the channel, and partners must now deliver solutions that don’t just protect networks; they protect the users themselves.
Artificial intelligence is accelerating this shift. Agentic AI allows attackers to automate things that used to require time and effort. The recent agentic cyberattack at Anthropic shows that attackers themselves are evolving, not just their methods. For the channel, this raises a critical question – do customers need more vendors to solve this new problem?
Canalys reports that many organisations already juggle more than five cybersecurity vendors. Adding more tools may feel like progress, but it often creates complexity, drains resources and erodes margins. The smarter strategy is consolidation. Leveraging AI and machine learning to unify defences reduces vendor sprawl, frees up IT teams and enables proactive protection. For partners, this means positioning themselves not as resellers of products but as deliverers of modernised, consolidated security stacks.
So, what should the channel be advising customers to do now? Firstly, to redefine their network protection. Threat actors need access to succeed, whether through cloud applications, internal networks, or remote users. Protecting traffic everywhere, through secure access service edge, redesigned VPNs and eliminating SSL VPN-style vulnerabilities, will shift the advantage back to defenders.
Secondly, move beyond static authentication. Every connection to applications should continuously verify the identity of users and devices. And thirdly, embrace autonomous operations. The security operations centre of the future will be powered by AI agents, with human experts with experts tuning the loops rather than being trapped inside them.
Cybersecurity has always been a race between attackers and defenders. What’s different now is the pace and automation of the threat. For the channel, International Computer Security Day is a reminder that today’s cybersecurity landscape needs demands resilience, adaptability and a proactive mindset. Partners who help customers modernise their architecture, consolidate intelligently and embrace AI-driven defence will protect their clients and also secure their own relevance in the new era of cybersecurity.
