The defender's dilemma is the notion that defenders must be right every time while attackers only need to succeed once. This perspective can lead to poor security strategies, resulting in wasted resources and overwhelmed security teams. It mischaracterizes the nature of attacks, which are often a series of events rather than a single point of failure.

Defenders can adopt the attacker’s dilemma mindset, focusing on detection throughout the entire attack lifecycle. By employing techniques such as automation, deception technology, and continuous skill development, security teams can impose costs on attackers and improve their chances of detecting and responding to threats effectively.

Deception technology allows defenders to create traps for attackers, such as honeypots and honey tokens, which can waste attackers' time and resources. This approach not only provides additional alerting opportunities but also shifts the dynamics of the attack, giving defenders a better chance to respond and mitigate threats.