As more businesses migrate to the cloud, enabling collaboration, accessibility and real-time analytics aren’t enough to keep things running smoothly. Securing every aspect of your cloud infrastructure is just as crucial, and cloud support services have long since realised this. Software development in Sri Lanka has also inclined itself towards building security-centric digital products and services for its clientele, in order to preserve the integrity of digital assets stored both on the cloud, as well as on-premise.
If you run or own a business, chances are that at least a fraction, if not the entirety of your business, is reliant on cloud computing. No matter which stage you are in on your cloud journey, here are some important aspects pertaining to cybersecurity – for the cloud primarily, but also for on-premise resources.
With steadfast digital proliferation, opportunities for both businesses and consumers are immense – but so is the opportunity for attackers to gain unauthorized access into your network. With numerous devices connecting to your network, are necessary protocols in place to ensure every endpoint can be trusted? This is where endpoint security comes in; coupled with overarching network security, identifying everything from ransomware to phishing attacks can make a wealth of difference when it comes to keeping your cloud infrastructure secure.
Add to this the fact that remote work environments have also become the norm. As a result, shadow IT is more prevalent than ever before, as employees access proprietary networks with personal devices. Your IT team doesn’t have the advantage to rest easy due to this, since employees aren’t necessarily using devices that have been pre-configured with security protocols, on behalf of your company, well beforehand.
This further ramps up the importance of Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) and Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions, since these can be integrated with Remote Monitoring & Management (RMM) tools for comprehensive monitoring as well as security. EMM and MDM both fall under the endpoint security umbrella, which means that a slew of options are available for businesses of all sizes – including small, boutique establishments
Sure, threat detection is necessary to keep your cloud infrastructure well protected. But today’s cybersecurity providers go the extra mile to also introduce threat hunting, which ensures your systems are being monitored 24/7, to catch threats well before they compromise anything within your network. Quarantining these items can be extremely life-saving for your resources, especially if they are zero-day threats. However, sandboxing can enable your IT team to test the threat in a controlled environment, in order to observe its kill chain. In turn, incident remediation strategies can be devised, so that a playbook is ready in the event an attack of this calibre ever repeats.
Threat intelligence takes all this a notch further, by consolidating all this valuable information into a peer-to-peer network. In essence, this is also what distinguishes the cybersecurity industry from the rest; vendors, albeit being competitors to one another, still rely on one other in order to strengthen each other’s threat intelligence networks. This is why it is common for larger cybersecurity providers to team up with smaller vendors, since threat intelligence can come from practically anywhere.
Policy and configuration management is highly paramount to the world of cybersecurity; rules laid herein determine the course of any potential attacks, so they can be contained in the most effective way. Workflow automation ties in very closely over here too, so security teams can rest assured that their networks are constantly protected, even while they sleep.
Vulnerability assessments play a vital role in cybersecurity; after all, your network is only as strong as your weakest link, as the saying goes. However, modern vulnerability assessment systems offer complete management of any risks detected, by working closely with sister solutions such as patch management and Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC). To start off, patch management solutions focus on releasing much needed updates to all relevant resources and endpoints that constitute your network, so no gaps are left open for attackers to exploit. GRC solutions, on the other hand, ensure regulatory protocols are met, depending on the industry and region your business operates in.
Additionally, vulnerability management is reinforced with penetration testing. Focusing on identifying possible gaps and loopholes within your network, pen testing services aim to find these shortcomings before attackers do. Layering on adversary simulation (also known as red teaming) to this mix can further solidify security strategies within the organization. This is because adversary simulation, as its name suggests, ‘simulates’ an attack against existing security strategies and resources – even unbeknownst to your workforce. Security teams then monitor how not just networks, but also your employees react to what is thought of as a legit breach – in order to strengthen and train respectively.
Administering accounts and passwords for your employees has long since been a responsibility of your IT staff, but this needs to go above and beyond regular password management in order to instil robust cybersecurity in your organization. With compromised accounts and passwords being one of the leading causes of cyber breaches, incorporating an Identity & Access Management (IAM) component together with your network infrastructure can ensure secure access for employees depending on multiple parameters – from devices and applications, to location and business unit.
From administering Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to biometric authentication, IAM solutions do more than just basic password management. They also offer complete employee lifecycle management, which basically administers access to employees right from the moment they join the company, and up until they resign. This extends over to multiple entities as well, such as independent contractors and customers, so every individual gaining access to your network is doing so under strict protocols – and only within the boundaries they are confined to
When networks are infiltrated by malicious attackers, compromising data is one of the biggest motives to do so. Holding data for ransom, or completely wiping off resources from disk can be some of many such compromisation tactics. Encrypting your data while in rest and motion can make it significantly less susceptible to attacks – and this is one out of many capabilities offered by dedicated Data Loss Prevention (DLP) solutions.
However, malicious attackers aren’t the only cause of data compromise; power outages and natural disasters can also trigger massive breakdowns. This is where disaster recovery solutions become highly crucial, since features such as inbuilt failover and restoration can enable business continuity no matter what befalls your organization
Software outsourcing in Sri Lanka and in many other destinations is highly popular nowadays. But irrespective of whether you are outsourcing or building your proprietary applications in-house, application security is a must in order to safeguard your vital data, as well as the experience you provide to your customers while they are using your application. Incorporate security within your SDLC itself, so that your application is always analysed on a code-level, to identify possible loopholes for remediation.
Whether you maintain DevOps, CI/CD or IDE (Integrated Developer Environment) pipelines, leading application security providers cater to all stages of the development lifecycle. Workload security is also another component that is often integrated with application security services, so complete protection can be obtained for your containers, databases, coding environments as well as overarching infrastructure.
Although cybersecurity and its many components can never function in silos, it’s important to stress on centralized systems that can provide real-time collaboration capabilities. With the threat landscape constantly undergoing change, your cybersecurity foundation will also need to evolve in order to accommodate varying ‘seasons’ of threats and breaches. Loopholes that were previously non-existent may crop up due to this ever-evolving rate of change, so it is imperative to keep checking for gaps – and closing them.
Numerous cybersecurity offerings of a more collaborative nature are available in the market, thereby giving organizations an array of options to choose from. While nothing is off-the-shelf and your cybersecurity vendor will be the best source of advice in terms of what should be used, it’s helpful to have a brief idea of what’s available.
SIEM (Security Information & Event Management) is one such solution, which correlates security-related analytics with event orchestration. Through rule-based policies, automations and aggregations, silos between insights and events are removed. SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation & Response) works side-by-side with SIEM in order to further close the loop between configuring a certain reactionary event, and making sense of insights obtained via monitoring – to have that cycle repeat all over again.
Albeit slightly new to the cybersecurity scene, SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) is a concept that offers comprehensive network security services over the cloud. Coined by Gartner in 2019, SASE is yet to gain momentum, but is being positioned as a top offering by numerous cybersecurity vendors already. With more businesses moving to the cloud, the premise of SASE is a beneficial one, and also looks promising – especially since the need for cybersecurity on cloud-based services need to be easily accessible.
In other words, the ready availability of security services over the cloud is what makes SASE so worthwhile. For your existing infrastructure, your cloud service provider can meet your cybersecurity requirements, whether it’s via a turnkey purchase from a marketplace, or through one-on-one discussions with a consultant. If you’re an AWS partner, for example, the vast offerings for cloud services provided under one roof basically mean that you need not look elsewhere to meet your cybersecurity requirements.
Ultimately, cybersecurity is all about catching anomalies before they wreak havoc, and creating a blueprint that will help contain it in the event it strikes again in the future. Even though cutting-edge technologies such as AI and machine learning are being extensively used to identify and forecast trends, obtaining assistance from a vendor’s team of security experts is essential in the wake of complex environments. Aside from rule-based and automated policies, 24/7 monitoring at the hands of qualified security experts from a dedicated Security Operations Centre (SOC) can elevate the security posture of your organization by leaps and bounds.
Your cybersecurity vendor can also offer awareness training to your employees for further enabling vigilance within your organization; based on the unique variables pertaining to your business, a vendor’s SOC can be a central hub for all things cybersecurity, while also grooming employees to stay both reactive and proactive as they conduct their daily duties within your business.
Today’s digital world lives in an era of zero-trust security – and for good reason. With cyber breaches rampant everywhere, today’s businesses are highly vulnerable – and establishing a strong security posture is of utmost importance. A variety of components constitute holistic cybersecurity; from niche password management to overarching SIEM, capabilities are diverse as they are powerful.
Companies need to evolve in order to protect their customers’ data, else pay a heavy price by means of declining revenue and loss of brand trust. Even the small business isn’t immune; as long as you depend on the cloud and any digital channels to conduct business operations, everyone is vulnerable to a fair extent.
As a result, focusing on cybersecurity is an immediate necessity, but also a long-term investment that needs to scale with time, thanks to a constantly evolving threat landscape. Cybersecurity vendors have long since been positioning themselves to offer more than just antivirus programs; through partnerships with other vendors, an entire security network is custom-built for clientele based on unique requirements.
Whether it’s a multinational vendor or a boutique one, close integrations ensure all-round protection so that no area within the organization is missed, and resources are monitored (sometimes even by dedicated SOCs), on a 24/7 basis.