Advanced threats are like the weather. Everyone talks about them, but few have a solid defense plan - or even a solid understanding of the threat landscape. Mike Nichols of General Dynamics Fidelis offers insight.

One common misunderstanding of advanced threat defense is that it's all about stopping malware, says Nichols, senior manager, sales engineer for General Dynamics Fidelis.

"Malware is just a very small subset of what the overall attack would be against you," Nichols says. "What an advanced threat really is: It's a person or a team of people that are trying to steal something from your network or gain some value by compromising your network. That malware is just one packet they might use."

And so to talk about advanced threat defense, one must look at the entire scope of the threat, he adds.

In an interview about advanced threat defense, Nichols discusses:

Common misunderstanding about advanced threats; The elements of advanced threat defense; How organizations are putting these security principles and tools into practice.

As a Senior Manager, Sales Engineer for General Dynamics Fidelis Cybersecurity Solutions, Nichols interfaces directly with Fidelis Research & Development and plays a key role in determining product direction and architecture. Prior to joining General Dynamics Fidelis, he served as a Security Analyst for Defense Point Security, where he worked for the Department of Homeland Security Operations Center to provide real time analysis of potential network intrusion attempts. He also served as a Sergeant and Intelligence Analyst in the US Army.