API sprawl. Encrypted traffic. Hyperconnected users.

Today’s digital business surfaces present attackers with fertile ground—not for brute-force break-ins, but for subtle, sustained manipulation.

A10 Networks Field CISO Jamison Utter calls this shift “defending with the mind of a hacker.” It’s not about flagging obvious threats. It’s about tracking how risk accumulates when normal behavior quietly veers into abnormal territory.

In our latest Strategic Reel, Utter breaks down how attackers are now exploiting business logic itself. “The same requests every user makes” become entry points for reconnaissance. If an adversary learns to warp an API-driven workflow—say, delay a competitor’s supply chain—the impact becomes real-world disruption, not just digital noise.

Traditional defenses see black-and-white: permit or block. But 99% of traffic lives in the gray zone. That’s where today’s hackers thrive—and where defenders must follow.

Utter explains how machine learning, applied to a unified data store, allows defenders to spot drift in routine behavior in real time. Instead of four partial views (WAF, DDoS, bot mitigation, API security), convergence yields one story: a full-context view of intent.

The resulting shift in mindset redefines defense: from chasing alerts to reasoning about behavior over time.

Catch the full Strategic Reel above, part of Last Watchdog’s ongoing series on cybersecurity leadership.

Pulitzer Prize-winning business journalist Byron V. Acohido is dedicated to fostering public awareness about how to make the Internet as private and secure as it ought to be.

(LW provides consulting services to the vendors we cover.)

The post STRATEGIC REEL: Inside the ‘Mind of a Hacker’ — turning attacker logic against them first appeared on The Last Watchdog.

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from The Last Watchdog authored by bacohido. Read the original post at: https://www.lastwatchdog.com/strategic-reel-inside-the-mind-of-a-hacker-turning-attacker-logic-against-them/