Cybersecurity Articles

Article / Updated 04-28-2025

Today, applications can run anywhere — on-premises or in the cloud — and users can access them from anywhere, on virtually any device. Modern business trends including remote and hybrid work, distributed and extended workforces (such as contractors, partners, vendors, and other third parties), and the proliferation of cloud-hosted applications have led to the emergence of a new security perimeter: identity. An identity includes attributes such as user (or account) name, password (or passphrase or secret key), roles, access privileges, and historical context. This information identifies an individual or entity (such as a service, device, or application) in an organization’s systems and networks. As attackers increasingly target identities, organizations must stay ahead by implementing a comprehensive identity security program. In this article, we explain how the right approach to identity security can enhance your organization’s security posture, improve the employee experience, and deliver significant business benefits. Rather than developing exploits for system or application vulnerabilities, attackers can simply log in with stolen credentials. According to the 2024 Verizon Business Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR), 68 percent of breaches are the result of credential theft (that is, the “human element”) from vectors including social engineering techniques (such as phishing, smishing, business email compromise, and pretexting) and brute-force dictionary attacks. A strong security posture is good for business When an organization falls victim to a ransomware attack or a data breach, normal business operations grind to a halt. It’s never “business as usual” when your employees, partners, and customers can’t access your critical applications and data because of a cyberattack. By improving network security and account hygiene, an identity security program can help organizations prevent breaches before they occur and respond quickly when compromised accounts are discovered, thus reducing the impact of any potential breaches. Don’t be the weak link in your supply chain security posture In our modern interconnected world, no business is an island, and the weakest link in your security posture may be one of your supply chain partners. According to research from BlueVoyant, more than four-fifths of organizations (81 percent) were impacted by supply chain attacks in 2024. Of course, supply chain attacks aren’t new — the 2013 Target data breach was the result of a compromised account belonging to a third-party maintenance vendor — but they have become more prevalent. More recently, the Change Healthcare (a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group) attack in February 2024 cost nearly $9 billion in response efforts and assistance to affected healthcare providers. Every business has a supply chain and is a part of the supply chain itself — whether as an upstream supplier, downstream customer, or both. Third-party risk management has taken on renewed importance and can be a competitive differentiator when selecting new partnerships or renewing existing relationships. Yet many organizations struggle to manage third-party access to their systems and data. A strong identity security program can help an organization better manage guest accounts and monitor third-party activities, reducing the risk of data breaches caused by third-party access. Security is only strong if it is adopted While the login experience isn’t likely to top your employees’ list of factors impacting job satisfaction, it is a routine part of their daily work lives, and a poor experience can quickly cause user frustration. Struggling to remember different passwords, answering numerous multi-factor authentication (MFA) prompts, or calling the help desk to unlock their account — all before they’ve had their first cup of coffee — isn’t a great way to start the workday. Employees can benefit from an identity security program that provides quick and seamless access to their applications and devices, increasing productivity and reducing user frustration. A well-designed identity security program can also increase operational efficiency and decrease resource strain on IT and help desk teams by streamlining identity and access management (IAM) workflows such as account provisioning, permissions management, MFA enrollment, password resets, and reporting. It’s a win-win for everyone. By defining clear objectives and tying them to known business drivers and risks, organizations can ensure a strong identity security program that delivers measurable business value. To learn more about identity security and its business benefits, visit https://duo.com/ and download a free copy of Identity Security For Dummies.

Article / Updated 03-03-2025

In this article you will learn: The necessity of discovering and classifying all sensitive data Challenges of modern DSPM tools Solutions that DSPM tools provide Data is often shared and copied across multiple locations, making your most valuable business asset a security nightmare. It’s in your organization’s best interests to keep data as secure as possible, away from prying eyes, no matter where it resides. Doing so requires a structured and strong data security program backed by a powerful data security posture management (DSPM) solution. Modern DSPM is the next generation of data security technology, designed for the complexities of the hybrid cloud environments by tapping into the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to continuously discover data and automate classification of sensitive information across known and unknown environments. The necessity of discovering and classifying all sensitive data Your sensitive data can’t be fully secure unless you’re able to effectively discover and classify every bit and byte of it, quickly and continually, and at scale, across your entire data footprint. That’s what modern DSPM excels at. Essential visibility — what data your enterprise has, how sensitive it is, and where it resides — is the key to security. Gaps in that visibility will stand in the way of a strong security posture. As data is discovered, modern DSPM classifies it automatically and precisely using AI and ML with advanced large language models. Modern DSPM solutions can discover and classify data types that are specific to your organization without any custom tuning. With data discovered and classified, you can then apply the appropriate security controls for keeping that data secure and keeping your organization in compliance with data protection regulations. Modern DSPM excels in both discovery and classification, which is why it’s critical for your data security program’s success. Challenges of modern DSPM tools Today’s data volumes and advanced technologies makes protecting your data a challenge, meaning legacy tools can’t keep up. You’ll find these problems when using a tool that’s not optimized for these challenges: Partially classified data: Legacy tools are designed with out-of-the-box classifiers, set up to only find what it’s looking for. Modern DSPM solutions find what you might not even know you should be looking for, such as unstructured sensitive documents specific to your organization. Discovery is slow: Data security requires rapid information, but legacy tools can’t keep up the pace. Scanning can take a long time because legacy tools don’t benefit from the AI and ML scanning techniques that a modern DSPM tool provides. Inaccurate classifications: Outdated tools tend to rely mainly on regular expressions and other older techniques to classify data. As a result, you need dedicated resources to manually write rules, tune the tools, and make sure classifications are accurate. Difficult to manage: With legacy tools, lots of agents and dedicated resources are needed to connect to datastores. That requires tons of work, and it is a monumental task to maintain. Solutions that DSPM tools provide DSPM, on the other hand, is made for modern data security challenges: Precision in classification and context: A modern DSPM solution applies AI and ML not only to detect common patterns, such as personal identifiers and financial data, but also to recognize proprietary, unstructured, or business-specific data with high precision. Scale and speed for today’s data environments: Precision alone isn’t enough for data that’s fast-moving and dispersed across SaaS, IaaS, and on-prem systems. Speed and scalability are essential. Modern DSPM tools operate agentlessly, scanning datastores quickly without disrupting business operations, providing rapid results, even across vast ecosystems. Actionable insights for remediation: Detecting risks is only the beginning. A powerful DSPM solution goes beyond visibility, offering actionable insights to address identified risks. Modern DSPM is the core that ties everything together and helps ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of your data. You really can’t run a modern data security program without it. To learn more about modern DSPM solutions that support your business needs, download Modern DSPM For Dummies, Cyera Special Edition.

Article / Updated 11-20-2024

Zero Risk application security provides comprehensive protection against potential threats, ensuring the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of your vital data and systems. This approach integrates automated risk analysis, stringent access provisioning controls, and continuous monitoring to prevent unauthorized access and vulnerabilities. The goal is to neutralize potential threats before they cause harm, which helps maintain the highest levels of visibility, security, and compliance. Aligning your organization’s Zero Risk strategies with established cybersecurity and regulatory compliance frameworks is a necessity. The goal is to create a robust security posture that not only protects your assets but also ensures you meet the critical standards set by regulatory bodies. Understanding the compliance landscape Before you can align your Zero Risk strategies with compliance frameworks, you must understand the landscape. Two of the most significant regulatory frameworks in this realm are the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). SOX focuses on financial reporting and corporate governance, while GDPR is concerned with data protection and privacy for individuals within the European Union. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) also provides a risk management framework that can be leveraged to align with Zero Risk strategies. This framework helps your organization manage and mitigate risks in a comprehensive and repeatable manner, ensuring that cybersecurity remains a dynamic and integral part of your organization’s culture and business processes. To hit the mark on Zero Risk, you also need to mature your cybersecurity model. The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) enhances your security practices through five levels of cyber hygiene: Level 1: Basic cyber hygiene: Figure out your current cybersecurity practices and understanding the basics. Level 2: Intermediate cyber hygiene: Document your cybersecurity practices consistency and repeatability. Level 3: Good cyber hygiene: Put proper risk management practices in place to address identified vulnerabilities and threats. Level 4: Proactive cyber hygiene: Routinely and regularly review risks. Continuous monitoring ensures you’re proactive in managing them. Level 5: Advanced and progressive cyber hygiene: Optimize your cybersecurity processes and continuously improving to stay ahead of emerging threats. Focusing on key actions to alignment Aligning Zero Risk with the compliance frameworks involves several key actions: Gap analysis: Conduct a thorough comparison of your current policies, processes, and technologies against the requirements of SOX, GDPR, and the NIST framework. This analysis highlights areas that need improvement and helps prioritize your efforts. Remediation roadmap: Develop a detailed plan (a roadmap of sorts) to address the identified gaps (see the preceding bullet). This plan should prioritize critical areas, allocate resources, and set timelines for completion. Policy communication: Update your policies to align with SOX and GDPR standards, and communicate these changes effectively across your organization. Taking practical measures for compliance To ensure that your Zero Risk strategies are in sync with compliance frameworks, consider the following practical measures: Automating monitoring and reporting: Use identity and application access governance software to automate the monitoring of your systems and the reporting process. This measure not only saves time but also reduces the risk of human error. Regular training: Conduct regular training and awareness programs for employees to ensure that they understand their roles in protecting data and maintaining financial integrity. Continuous monitoring: Implement real-time tracking of all transactions within the application environment. This helps maintain an up-to-date security posture and immediate threat detection. Maintaining compliance and security After you’ve aligned your Zero Risk strategies with compliance frameworks, maintaining that alignment over time is crucial. To stay aligned and ensure ongoing compliance, follow these tips: Perform audits. Conduct regular internal audits to test your financial controls and data security procedures. This action helps identify any compliance drift early on. Stay updated. Keep abreast of changes in compliance frameworks and adjust your policies and procedures accordingly. This means subscribing to regulatory updates, attending relevant seminars and webinars, and participating in industry groups. Regularly revisit your compliance frameworks to ensure they reflect the latest legal and regulatory changes. Document, document, document. Keep an up-to-date record of all data processing activities. This documentation is key to demonstrating compliance during audits. Aligning Zero Risk strategies with cybersecurity and regulatory compliance frameworks is a dynamic process that requires continuous attention and adaptation. By taking a systematic approach to gap analysis, remediation, and ongoing maintenance, organizations can not only enhance their security posture but also ensure they meet the evolving demands of regulatory compliance. This integrated strategy supports sustainable growth and resilience in an increasingly complex digital landscape. Achieving compliance is an accomplishment, but maintaining it is the goal. Falling out of compliance can be costly, so keep reviewing and updating your cybersecurity model to stay ahead of the curve. How Pathlock can help Your organization needs to achieve a Zero Risk application environment, and Pathlock can help. Pathlock’s solutions give you critical tools for planning a proactive defense strategy to continuously monitor and manage risks. To find out more, check out Zero Risk Application Security For Dummies, Pathlock Special Edition. Head to pathlock.com/resource/zero-risk-application-security-for-dummies for your free e-book, and start planning your Zero Risk application security approach.

Article / Updated 08-19-2024

The need to fortify your digital assets is crystal clear — or at least it should be. Having robust security depends on integrating diverse security protocols. Utilizing a framework like the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) enables your organization to evaluate how well it’s protected and provides a clear path of progression for improving protection. Managing risk and becoming resilient against prevalent cyber dangers is an increasingly complex task. We live in a mega-connected world, and organizations are assessing and improving their governance maturity step by step to ensure a more secure digital environment for everyone. Applying the CMM approach to SAP application security involves strategically integrating governance maturity best practices into every aspect of your SAP system’s management. The governance and compliance life cycle involves the ongoing management and safeguarding against internal and external threats toward your information systems and data. This cycle includes three stages: getting clean, staying clean, and optimizing. The goal of this cycle is to establish and maintain effective access control measures. Utilizing CMM enhances your security measures through more efficient organization for assessing and improving your risk mitigation efforts. Keep reading for a primer on each stage in the governance and compliance life cycle. Getting Clean In the first stage of the governance and compliance life cycle, the goal is to produce a more risk-free environment by creating more visibility into your risk landscape. You do that in two stages: Identify the scope of your application landscape. What does that mean? You take inventory. This assessment starts with creating a record of all applications within your organization. Identify and document all applications you’re currently using, along with the users with access to each system. Identifying technical debt and user access bloat can help streamline focus to critical applications with key user bases. Execute access risk analysis (ARA) to identify and correct risks in any existing access. Look at your existing access rights and permissions for each application. Determine who has access to what and assess if these permissions are appropriate. Keeping sensitive data safe is more important than ever. Conducting this risk analysis ensures that only the right people can access the appropriate data. When you take the time to conduct a thorough ARA, you’ll see many benefits: Enhanced security and authorized access Effective regulatory compliance Optimized resource utilization Improved data integrity Strengthened reputational standing Reduced operational costs Staying Clean After you’ve done the detective work in the getting clean stage, you stay clean by using an automated process. Here, you start implementing preventative risk checks to ensure that you address the potential security threats when people come, go, and move within your business. Streamlining with access request management Streamlining your access request management efforts centralizes access requests, approvals, and auditing — all within a user-friendly interface. After getting the appropriate approvals, you ensure that the right people have access to the right data. Those approvals can include manager review, role or access owner review, and risk owner approval with any necessary mitigating controls applied prior to provisioning access. Validating user access certifications User access certifications ensure that users’ outdated access rights don’t remain. They also maintain the regular review and revalidation of controls and risks so you stay up to date. Strike the right balance between efficiency and effectiveness in application access certifications. Automating, centralizing, and optimizing the certification process reduces the amount of time it takes to complete user access reviews and enhances their accuracy and impact. Optimizing In the last stage, optimizing, you focus on continually improving your environment after establishing a documented, repeatable, and automated risk management process (that’s in the first two stages: getting clean and staying clean). Automating elevated access management processes The automation of elevated access management processes enables you to optimize how sensitive access is requested, provisioned, and monitored. This approach builds on the access risk analysis results to identify sensitive access and enable end-users to request temporary, time-bound checkout of the access. After approvals are received, access is automatically provisioned and deprovisioned in alignment with the approved timeframe, with change logs available for management review. Ensuring that elevated access processes are efficient and consistent helps your company implement improved risk management, gain auditor approval, and improve end-user satisfaction. Monitoring and quantifying risk exposure You can’t eliminate every risk, and you may go crazy trying. Set predefined thresholds for your risk exposure so you can identify the risks that threaten those limits. That way, you’re only tracking and reporting on all quantifiable risks that actually occurred instead of the thousands of risks that never happened, which wastes everyone’s precious time. Executing continuous controls monitoring and risk quantification produces efficient and consistent processes to help save time, increase productivity, lower costs, and implement approved designs. Addressing threat detection Focus on what matters. Security and operations teams often lack visibility and understanding of the data that can indicate potential architecture-level security threats — threats that may harm your critical business applications. But with a continuous monitoring system, you can reap the benefits of threat detection and response capabilities, such as Continuous threat detection coverage for thousands of threat indicators Automatic updates with the latest threat information, patch availability, and ongoing research Rapid response to threats with resolution guidance so you can reduce investigation response times Enriching your security information and event management (SIEM) applications with detailed threat detection data How Pathlock Can Help When dealing with risk, Pathlock provides customers with a comprehensive set of modular capabilities. Designed to seamlessly work together, the available tools reduce potential risk by following the get clean, stay clean, optimize methodology. To learn more about this practice, visit www.pathlock.com/sap. To find out more about Pathlock and SAP application security, check out SAP Application Security For Dummies, Pathlock Special Edition. Head to get.pathlock.com/direct-ebook-sap-application-security-for-dummies-special-edition for your free e-book and start planning your SAP application security strategy to get clean, stay clean, and optimize.

Article / Updated 03-12-2024

Advanced email threats use a wide range of methods to attack company security, including sophisticated technology and an in-depth understanding of the weak points in the way that email recipients and senders communicate. To fight them, companies need to use tools including threat detection, threat hunting, and extended detection and response (XDR) technology. Here are ten things you can use to protect against advanced email threats. Use secure email threat defense Use a comprehensive email security solution to detect quickly and respond effectively. Look for an email defense system that automatically and reliably does many of the things that you might wish users would do consistently, such as: Assess the sender’s reputation Asses the reputation of the email’s source URL Scan content for concerning words and phrases Scan file attachments and analyze their reputation and content Spot and block spam Optimize your defenses against major email threats You can scan the horizon for current threats and note what threats are being blocked — or causing breaches — at your organization. You can then respond by working with your vendor; working with your email provider; training your security personnel and end users; educating upper management; and many more steps. Use AI to understand and categorize threats You can use AI to identify patterns that serve as indicators of an attack. These patterns are often so subtle that attackers aren’t aware of the breadcrumbs they’re leaving as they put together attempts at exploits. AI can spot these patterns before the bad actors do. Use threat data to inform and expedite your response Before a threat arrives, you can know: What the recent patterns of threats look like The signatures left by different kinds of threats What attacks are leading to successful breaches The best response to each different kind of breach By using threat data, you help yourself at every step of the “funnel” of security breaches: reducing the number of attacks that reach user inboxes, reducing the impact when a malicious email is opened or a toxic file attachment is downloaded, and responding quickly and effectively to the remaining breaches that do occur. Act quickly to ensure maximum protection against threats By acting automatically against many threats, and by providing alerts and information about the threats that do appear, the best email security solutions give you a precious gift in responding to any remaining breaches: time. With a solution in place, your best people are empowered to respond quickly and effectively to the breaches that do occur, while directing their focus to strategic efforts such as studying the breach, understanding how it occurred, and taking the steps needed to prevent a recurrence. Unify visibility across control points Look for a security provider that helps you unify visibility across multiple control points so you can, for instance, tie the damage that’s occurring from a successful breach to the original gaps in your defenses that allowed it to occur. You can then “mind the gap” and prevent the problem from recurring in the future. Embrace automated tools to maximize resources Automated tools save your people’s time and focus for the largest potential threats. These tools also allow your team to find a solution and then “set it and forget it,” using the automated tools to prevent the same problem from happening again. Detect sooner, respond faster You can’t solve a problem you don’t know you have — and most cybersecurity breaches get worse the longer it takes you to respond. Effective security solutions buy you time, removing some threats and giving you early notice of others. Getting started Visit Cisco.com and download your free copy of Advanced Email Threats For Dummies to learn more about advanced email threats.

Article / Updated 03-11-2024

What is XDR? It’s a recent addition to the swarm of acronyms bouncing around the business technology space. XDR platforms include tools for incident response, threat hunting, automation, threat detection, visualization, threat management, and more. What brings it all together is a centralized viewpoint of your entire security infrastructure. Here are ten things you need to know about XDR including some key features to look for when shopping for an XDR solution. Reduce time to detect and respond At the end of the day, XDR platforms aim to reduce detection and response times. More data and more tools don’t mean faster security teams. They often mean overwhelmed security teams. XDR focuses on providing actionable information through machine learning-supported analytics and a centralized dashboard. On the response side, orchestration and automation features streamline the response process by providing easy-to-use and customizable tools for security staff. Visualize integrated security data XDR takes in a lot of information and must organize it to reduce alert fatigue, false positives, and general security operations hassle. Central dashboards are customizable information hubs for security teams to organize their data to fit the organization’s needs. Visualization tools such as incident maps should help identify threat sources and trace potentially new attack points. Precise monitoring Because XDR platforms usually come with machine learning-based analytics, and rely on secondary security tools for data collection, security teams should have a clear view of an organization’s ecosystem. Providing good information, rather than lots of information, cleans up what staff actually see, making it easier to focus on legitimate security concerns. Contextualize alerts and reduce false positives XDR’s centralized dashboard features provide context to security situations. Alerts coming in are more reliable because the XDR system has the relevant threat intelligence required to make decisions about what is concerning, abnormal behavior and what isn’t. False positives are a waste of resources, and XDR’s comprehensive view of the IT infrastructure helps reduce their frequency. Automated responses Automation features have been around in the security space for some time, but XDR’s broad reach enables its automation tools to benefit from some fine-tuning. Many XDR products offer machine learning-supported automation that can take care of rote security tasks, so security staff can work on the harder jobs that need human intervention. Keep it open XDR isn’t a lone wolf and needs the support of specialized security tools. XDR platforms offer a lot of integration options, both with existing security tools and ones that may be added in the future. Endpoint detection and response (EDR) and network detection and response (NDR) in particular are two tools to think about including when building out your security infrastructure. Store and analyze logs at scale Because of the powerful analytics tools XDR brings in, these platforms are able to process large amounts of security data. XDR solutions are easily scalable so your organization can grow over time, without worrying how your security analytics will have to change. Address compliance requirements The large amount of data that can be processed by XDR also means compliance and industry regulation requirements can be confidently met. Organizations involved in healthcare or finance are especially in need of extensive logging and analysis tools. Siloed solutions are partial solutions Security infrastructure has become so vast that siloing systems has become common. Enterprise-level IT infrastructure can’t rely on this separation of systems, as attackers expand and develop their attack strategies. Incomplete security information can lead to false positives and alert fatigue, because monitoring tools won’t have the full context of suspicious activity. Remember the human factors The security personnel managing these tools are the most important part of any successful IT security environment. Inefficient security solutions overwork security staff by burdening them with false positive threats, unnecessary alerts that lead to alert fatigue, and lackluster identification and response tools that slow them down. Getting started Visit Cisco.com and download your free copy of Extended Detection and Response (XDR) For Dummies, 2nd Cisco Special Edition to learn more about topic.

Article / Updated 02-15-2024

What is MDR? Managed detection and response (MDR) is more a security service than it is a security tool. The words “detection and response” sound like the most important part of the acronym, and those are the meat and potatoes of any good security infrastructure, but what sets MDR apart is how the solution is managed. MDR service providers offer businesses access to in-house security experts who monitor, alert, investigate, create response plans, and more. MDR providers’ detection and response tools are integrated into an existing IT infrastructure so the security pros can detect and respond to security threats. MDR solutions are for small to midsize organizations that can’t support a full staff of security operations employees and larger organizations that wish to supplement their existing security solutions. MDR is a strong option for many organizations, but it’s important to remember that not all MDRs are created equal. At their core, MDR solutions offer integrated security tools monitored and managed by the provider’s security professionals, but there can be key differences among solutions. For instance, it’s wise to select a vendor that uses the latest technologies, partners with you, and provides consulting and technical support, such as digital forensics and incident response (DFIR) services. A risk-based approach to cybersecurity A risk-based approach to cybersecurity is a key differentiator in the MDR market. Companies that use risk-based cybersecurity stop three times more attacks, find more than 50 percent of incidents within one day, and see impactful breaches reduced from 76 to 28 percent, according to an Accenture cybersecurity report. To make these security options more accessible to small and midsize companies, a true risk-based, consultative approach to cybersecurity is recommended. A partnership between the client and the MDR vendor allows smaller organizations to protect themselves from the onslaught of cyberattacks, vulnerabilities, and risks without hiring an internal security team. A risk-based approach enables clients to tap into end-to-end solutions with a team of skilled, innovative professionals enabled by technology, automation, and advanced analytics to meet individual client organization needs. Humans are the key Just as humans are the driving force behind today’s security threats, they’re also behind the best security solutions for combating them. This humans-first approach to MDR integrates human intervention and problem-solving into almost every step of the threat response life cycle. A truly successful MDR service must combine the intelligence and creativity of human minds with powerful security technology. An example of this philosophy in action is the thousands of alerts that security information and event management (SIEM) systems can produce. Security experts must sift through them so alert fatigue and false negatives don’t impact security operations. Accessibility to analysts for questions and updates is important because two-way conversations and real relationships build a strong cybersecurity program. Consultative approach A consultative approach to security provides access to experienced security practitioners. Look for an MDR that is with you throughout your journey to partner with you and design a program that focuses on your specific cybersecurity and compliance needs today, with the built-in capability to evolve your program as the cybersecurity landscape changes and as your needs and priorities change. Access to security professionals provided by MDR services helps overcome security challenges. A select few MDR service providers offer risk assessments and penetration testing and have teams of people who know how to navigate compliance and regulation issues. Look for an MDR partner whose business is built on the risk-based consultative approach for clients, enabling them to provide end-to-end solutions with a team of skilled, innovative professionals enabled by technology, automation, and advanced analytics to meet individual client organization needs. Getting started Visit Pondurance.com and download your free copy of Managed Detection & Response (MDR) For Dummies to learn more about MDR.

Article / Updated 01-16-2024

In this article you will learn: what DSPM is why you need DSPM what you can do with DSPM ten must-have capabilities to look for in a DSPM solution how to get started with DSPM Data is the lifeblood of modern business and data security in the cloud is top of mind for organizations everywhere. Data security posture management (DSPM) solutions address the need for an automated, scalable, and agile system across the full data security lifecycle — from discovery, classification, cataloging, and risk prioritization to access control, policy enforcement, remediation, and real-time monitoring. This helps organizations reduce risks and costs associated with cloud data security while improving their overall cybersecurity posture. What is DSPM? Data security posture management empowers organizations to implement a data-centric security strategy by first providing an accurate inventory of their sensitive data and identifying where it violates data security policies, thereby enhancing overall data security posture. A data-centric security strategy emphasizes the importance of protecting your valuable data rather than focusing on systems and infrastructure. Key capabilities in a DSPM solution include the following: Global data visibility provides organizations with a comprehensive view of their sensitive data. This involves identifying the location and type of sensitive data to ensure proper protection measures are in place. All clouds — including infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), platform-as-service (PaaS), and software-as-a-service (SaaS) resources — need to be covered. The appropriate data owners must also be identified, to facilitate efficient communication of any data-related security or privacy issues. Data hygiene is about keeping your data clean and healthy. It encompasses various actions that help organizations maintain clean and organized data in accordance with their data governance framework. This includes addressing and remediating misplaced, redundant, and obsolete data to streamline maintenance, optimize storage resources, and reduce potential security risks. Purging outdated or irrelevant data is another essential part of good data hygiene, resulting in the retention of only accurate and useful data. Data security risk control involves immediately detecting and proactively remediating data risk factors to prevent data breaches. This capability detects and addresses three key data postures: Overexposed data, such as public read access, or permissive access rights, which should be identified and mitigated to reduce the likelihood of unauthorized access or data breaches Underprotected data, where there are missing controls like encryption, masking, or proper retention policies Misplaced data, such as cardholder data subject to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) in an unauthorized environment or PII data in a development environment Data access governance manages and controls access to sensitive data. This involves: Identifying all internal and external users, roles, and resources with access to sensitive data Monitoring and controlling access patterns based on their roles and responsibilities Ensuring that only authorized users have access to sensitive assets Regularly reviewing and updating access permissions based on actual usage Privacy and compliance ensure that organizations adhere to data privacy regulations and industry standards, and make audits more manageable (and perhaps a little less painful and costly). Providing objective evidence for audits can be challenging, but having reporting from DSPM that shows you know where your data is and understand that its security posture can significantly ease compliance. Why do you need DSPM? For modern enterprises, data is fuel for innovation. These companies understand that data is a key asset and a source of competitive differentiation. They democratize data to unleash its full potential and make it accessible for application developers, data scientists, and business users. However, as data proliferates, security doesn’t travel with it — and adding the pace of change to the sprawl of cloud technology means that data security teams just can’t keep up. Malicious actors constantly target this new threat vector — the “innovation attack surface” — which has emerged as a result of several key trends: Cloud transformation and data democratization: The cloud has enabled widespread data democratization, enabling easy access to data for developers, data scientists, and business users to support their innovation efforts. However, this freedom to access and use data without oversight creates unknown, unmanaged, and unprotected cloud data sources. Technology sprawl and complexity: In the public cloud, each cloud service is configured and used differently, and each introduces new and unique risks. The ever-changing architectures are confusing and complex, and if you’re not careful, this can lead to some costly and even devastating mistakes with sensitive data stored in the cloud. Cloud data proliferation: Nearly half of all data (48 percent) is stored in the public cloud today, and it’s only increasing, according to the Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report. Unfortunately, traditional data security controls are unable to keep up with the dynamic movement of data, so they must be configured from scratch every time data is created, copied, shared, or moved. Death of the traditional perimeter: One of the many benefits of the cloud is that it is accessible from anywhere. Thus, the notion of a network perimeter — an on-premises data center protected by a firewall — has all but disappeared. The lack of a single choke point (a firewall) means sensitive data is exposed by design because anyone can access it from anywhere with the proper credentials (whether authorized or stolen). Faster rate of change: Release cycles now happen in weeks, days, and hours rather than months and years. Unfortunately, security teams are usually not on that same quick schedule and still rely on slower manual approaches. The changing role of security: In cloud computing, data security teams must evolve to securely enable the business rather than just slowing everyone down or letting risk grow exponentially. Data security in cloud computing must focus on protecting data from breaches and compromises while also empowering users to be productive. What can you do with DSPM? Data security, governance, and privacy teams can use DSPM to help keep their organization secure and compliant. Some common use cases for DSPM include the following: Automating data discovery and classification: DSPM helps organizations automatically and continuously discover, classify, and categorize all of their known and unknown data — including sensitive, proprietary, regulated, abandoned, and shadow data — across multicloud environments, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Snowflake, Microsoft 365, and more. Enforcing data security policies automatically: DPSM automatically enforces data security policies at scale for all of your data as it travels through the cloud. DSPM converts data policies into specific technical configurations and shows where data security policies are violated. It also prioritizes issues for resolution and helps you fix those issues with clear, specific technical remediation instructions. Controlling data exposure: As data rapidly proliferates in the cloud, security does not follow that data, often leading to crucial business data being exposed. DSPM pinpoints all of your exposed sensitive data that can lead to data breaches, ransomware attacks, and noncompliance penalties — whether it’s misplaced data (for example, sensitive data mistakenly stored in public buckets), misconfigured controls (for example, third-party access granted to sensitive data), or overly permissive access. Controlling datacentric environment segmentation: DSPM helps you segment your cloud environments and apply location controls to comply with security and regulatory requirements. You can detect and receive alerts when sensitive or regulated data is placed in untrusted and/or unauthorized environments, review violations, and take action to remove the data or authorize the new environment. Complying with data privacy and compliance frameworks: DSPM streamlines evidence collection for internal and external privacy and governance stakeholders through autonomous data discovery and classification of your sensitive and regulated data. A DSPM data policy engine continuously enforces regulatory compliance and standards requirements for data, regardless of the underlying technology or location. Ten must-have capabilities to look for in a DSPM solution When considering a DSPM solution for your organization, be sure to select one with the following important capabilities and features: Autonomous: Automatically discover unknown, new, and modified data stores across all of your clouds — without needing credentials or manual configuration. Continuous: Change is constant — especially in the public cloud — so your DSPM solution must be able to continuously monitor your environment for changes and automatically scan new cloud accounts, new data stores, and new data added to existing data stores. Secure by design: Look for a solution that doesn’t extract data from your environment. Your DSPM should use the cloud service provider’s (CSP) application programming interface (API) and ephemeral serverless functions in your cloud account to scan your data. Breadth and depth of coverage: Whether you’re using Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Snowflake, Microsoft 365, or practically any combination of various cloud database, storage services, or software as a service (SaaS) apps, you need a single and consistent view of your data across clouds, geographies, and organizational boundaries to evaluate the risk to your data across all clouds. Intelligent classification: Look for a solution that utilizes multistep contextual analysis to automatically identify sensitive data with low false positive (FP) and false negative (FN) rates. The solution should also include hundreds of predefined classification rules, data validators, and classification algorithms that extract the data insights you need without having to locate the data owner. Extensive set of built-in datacentric policies: Look for a solution that provides out-of-the-box datacentric policies for common use cases like data security, proper governance, and privacy. Customization features: You need a solution with robust customization features that are flexible and powerful enough to match your data taxonomy and address any unique requirements your organization may have such as sensitivity levels/definitions, data types, and custom industry policies. Guided remediation: Look for a solution that provides a full analysis of why a security or compliance violation exists, evidence of its existence, and technical recommendations on how to fix it based on policy and environment. Simple and quick deployment process: Your DSPM solution should be agentless and connectorless to simplify and accelerate the deployment process. Look for a solution that can be deployed in minutes and delivers time-to-value in a few days. Easy integration with your ecosystem: Look for a DSPM solution with extensive integrations that include third-party systems such as IT service management (ITSM), security information and event management (SIEM), cloud security posture management (CSPM), extended detection and response (XDR), and data catalogs. Getting started Visit laminarsecurity.com to learn more. Download your free copy of Data Security Posture Management For Dummies to learn more about how DSPM enables organizations to harness the power of cloud data securely and efficiently.

Article / Updated 09-05-2023

The modern cloud environment is enabling game-changing innovation — that’s clear. Mobile devices have an app for virtually anything, Internet of Things technologies are dazzling users, widely dispersed workers are collaborating more effectively than ever, countless things are now available “as a Service,” and the list could go on forever. But with the growth, sprawl, and speed of cloud development, many organizations’ cloud-enabled software development life cycles are increasingly at risk, with an ever-expanding attack surface and the danger of missteps. Over the next few years, the vast majority of cloud data security breaches — most the result of misconfigurations and coding mistakes — will be totally preventable with detection tools aiming to try to catch issues before they turn into nightmares. But these helpful detection tools can create an unhelpful avalanche of alerts that overwhelm security and development teams and get in the way of real cloud security efficiency. How can you successfully use the detection tools you have in place in order to figure out which alerts matter most to your business and then quickly fix them before you find yourself with gaps that could be exploited? In this article, you take a look at some of the main pain points in cloud security remediation today and what can be done. Experiencing the Big Pain Points Today’s engineering teams have created vast continuous-integration pipelines that tap into code repositories, continuous-integration platforms, and tools for testing, orchestration, and monitoring. They all live within and across cloud platforms, so things are speedy and efficient. That’s great for business but a nightmare when it comes to keeping data secure in the cloud because everything from applications to developers to production environments are more distributed and complex than they used to be in the good old datacenter days. This situation creates seven pain points: Overlapping tools with duplicate alerts: Many effective security tools exist, but because the attack surface is so broad and complex, those tools overlap one another. A single event can trigger alerts in several different detection tools, and you don’t have a unified view into what the concerns are. Too many false alarms: The problem of alert overload from multiple tools is worsened by false positives that are then multiplied. In many cases a single root cause is at the heart of multiple different issues, along with multiple alerts — even from within the same product. Auto-scaling containers in the cloud can also auto-scale the alert load, unfortunately. Too few hours in the day for the security team: The blizzard of information makes it less likely that your security team will be able to keep up. They may spend a massive amount of time manually investigating threats and prioritizing risks, and by the time they’ve figured that out, there’s not enough bandwidth left for strategic issues. Difficulty finding the right fixer: An architecture based on microservices means a lot of folks are working independently, as individuals or distributed engineering teams, developing and releasing services on their own. That makes it more challenging to figure out who has an action item. Lurking shadow pipelines and exploitable secrets: Cloud container technologies let your developers spin up applications so quickly that the security team sometimes doesn’t even know they exist. Without a way to see “code to cloud,” you may not be aware of shadow DevOps activities and exploitable secrets. Not enough context on problem: The code owner, once identified, often must dig into each issue from scratch. There may be little or no context to help figure out the cause and solution. One-off solutions to zombie problems: After the fix has been devised, it may be implemented in a bespoke, one-off way. With no centralized view and no automation, there’s no guarantee that a problem that gets fixed today won’t crop up again tomorrow. Building Sustainable Cloud Security As your teams struggle with these pain points in cloud network security, take comfort in the fact that a certified cloud security professional can, indeed, deliver sustainable cloud security remediation. Here’s a four-point wish list of what a solution must be able to do: Map and visualize: Your solution must paint a great picture of the code-to-production pipeline and all its resources. It should create a heat map showing how code moves through the pipeline and where along the path the security issues are arising. Deduplicate: Your solution must be able to normalize and deduplicate the vast number of alerts that your detection tools are ringing. It should do this by comparing details about code flaws and misconfigurations to trim the list into unique alerts. Find the root cause and the owner: For every unique issue, you need to know the root cause, the code owner, and the configuration drift. You need all the context you can get, including issue severity, exploitation, and relationships. By correlating information from code and cloud resources, you can cut out a lot of manual work. Streamline the fix: Regardless of the alert source, the cloud provider, the configuration, or the language in which the code is written, a sustainable solution needs to aggregate and make sense of the data to recommend fixes on the most critical issues. And preferably, it should be able to auto-generate those fixes. How Dazz Fits into the Picture The Dazz Remediation Cloud is a cloud security solution that tackles issue remediation as a data problem. Its agentless, SaaS platform uses patented artificial intelligence (AI), data correlation, root-cause analysis, and automation capabilities to help resource-constrained security teams quickly prioritize and fix the vulnerabilities that matter most in collaboration with their engineers. Here’s how it works: Graphing the pipeline: Dazz automatically gathers a wealth of information by way of its API connections to all critical points in the code-to-cloud process. It maps everything into a pipeline graph that connects all the dots, documenting every path that code follows from development to cloud deployment, and every resource that touches it along the way. Contextualizing security: Because it has created a big picture from multiple sources, the Dazz Remediation Cloud can analyze and backtrack each security issue to its source and eliminate duplicates. Dazz receives an alert from a cloud security tool, determines the specific cloud resource that caused the security issue, and traces the cloud resource back to the pipeline used to deploy it. Dazz figures out which vulnerable artifact was deployed and what triggered its build. Automating root cause analysis: Dazz Remediation Cloud uses a root-cause analysis engine to automate the next steps of investigating and prioritizing cloud security issues. It continuously ingests security risks and automatically investigates them. It quickly discerns the identity of code owners, a root cause context, and a fix suggestion. Dazz can determine how exploitable a code vulnerability is, which developer is responsible for the fix, where in the software development life cycle to make the fix — and perhaps most important, how to ensure you’re taking care of the root cause once and for all. Tapping the remediation knowledge base: Dazz suggests fixes by tapping into a remediation knowledge base. It’s generated by using threat intelligence, program analysis, and AI. Behind the scenes, it automatically tests thousands of new options of fixes for emerging vulnerabilities and builds a template to suggest the best remediation steps for whatever security issues it’s bringing to your attention. Adopting solid governance and reporting: Dazz builds in its own set of best-practice policies for pipeline governance. As part of its proactive monitoring, it’s continually on the lookout for violations and unapproved practices, and it facilitates reporting that your risk and compliance team will greatly appreciate. The solution helps users adopt best practices such as standard cloud configurations, right-sized privileged access, and full auditing. By understanding the top remediation pain points and how you can begin to address them, your remediation nightmares can turn into soothing dreams with well-connected, automated solutions for a secure cloud. Download Cloud Security Remediation For Dummies, Dazz Special Edition, today, and discover how to start creating sustainable cloud security remediation.

Article / Updated 08-31-2023

While cybersecurity may sound like a simple enough term to define, in actuality, from a practical standpoint, it means quite different things to different people in different situations, leading to extremely varied relevant policies, procedures, and practices. An individual who wants to protect their social media accounts from hacker takeovers, for example, is exceedingly unlikely to assume many of the cybersecurity approaches and technologies used by Pentagon workers to secure classified networks. Typically, cybersecurity means the following: For individuals, cybersecurity means that their personal data is not accessible to anyone other than themselves and others who they have so authorized, and that their computing devices work properly and are free from malware. For small business owners, cybersecurity may include ensuring that credit card data is properly protected and that standards for data security are properly implemented at point-of-sale registers. For firms conducting online business, cybersecurity may include protecting servers that untrusted outsiders regularly interact with. For shared service providers, cybersecurity may entail protecting numerous data centers that house numerous servers that, in turn, host many virtual servers belonging to many different organizations. For the government, cybersecurity may include establishing different classifications of data, each with its own set of related laws, policies, procedures, and technologies. The bottom line is that while the word cybersecurity is easy to define, the practical expectations that enters people's minds when they hear the word vary quite a bit. Technically speaking, cybersecurity is the subset of information security that addresses information and information systems that store and process data in electronic form, whereas information security encompasses the security of all forms of data (for example, securing a paper file and a filing cabinet). That said, today, many people colloquially interchange the terms, often referring to aspects of information security that are technically not part of cybersecurity as being part of the latter. Such usage also results from the blending of the two in many situations. For example, if someone writes down a password on a piece of paper and leaves the paper on their desk where other people can see the password instead of placing the paper in a safe deposit box or safe, they have violated a principle of information security, not of cybersecurity, even though their actions may result in serious cybersecurity repercussions. The risks that cybersecurity mitigates People sometimes explain the reason that cybersecurity is important as being “because it prevents hackers from breaking into systems and stealing data and money.” But such a description dramatically understates the role that cybersecurity plays in keeping the modern home, business, or even world running. In fact, the role of cybersecurity can be looked at from a variety of different vantage points, with each presenting a different set of goals. Of course the following lists aren’t complete, but they should provide food for thought and underscore the importance of understanding how to cybersecure yourself and your loved ones. The goal of cybersecurity: The CIA triad Cybersecurity professionals often explain that the goal of cybersecurity is to ensure the Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability (CIA) of data, sometimes referred to as the CIA Triad, with the pun lovingly intended: Confidentiality refers to ensuring that information isn’t disclosed or in any other way made available to unauthorized entities (including people, organizations, or computer processes). Don’t confuse confidentially with privacy: Confidentiality is a subset of the realm of privacy. It deals specifically with protecting data from unauthorized viewers, whereas privacy in general encompasses much more. Hackers that steal data undermine confidentiality. Integrity refers to ensuring that data is both accurate and complete. Accurate means, for example, that the data is never modified in any way by any unauthorized party or by a technical glitch. Complete refers to, for example, data that has had no portion of itself removed by any unauthorized party or technical glitch. Integrity also includes ensuring nonrepudiation, meaning that data is created and handled in such a fashion that nobody can reasonably argue that the data is not authentic or is inaccurate. Cyberattacks that intercept data and modify it before relaying it to its destination — sometimes known as man-in-the-middle attacks — undermine integrity. Availability refers to ensuring that information, the systems used to store and process it, the communication mechanisms used to access and relay it, and all associated security controls function correctly to meet some specific benchmark (for example, 99.99 percent uptime). People outside of the cybersecurity field sometimes think of availability as a secondary aspect of information security after confidentiality and integrity. In fact, ensuring availability is an integral part of cybersecurity. Doing so, though, is sometimes more difficult than ensuring confidentiality or integrity. One reason for this is that maintaining availability often requires involving many more noncybersecurity professionals, leading to a “too many cooks in the kitchen” type challenge, especially in larger organizations. Distributed Denial of Service attacks attempt to undermine availability. Also, consider that attacks often use large numbers of stolen computer power and bandwidth to launch DDoS attacks, but responders who seek to ensure availability can only leverage the relatively small amount of resources that they can afford. What cybersecurity means from a human perspective The risks that cybersecurity addresses can also be thought of in terms better reflecting the human experience: Privacy risks: Risks emanating from the potential loss of adequate control over, or misuse of, personal or other confidential information. Financial risks: Risks of financial losses due to hacking. Financial losses can include both those that are direct — for example, the theft of money from someone’s bank account by a hacker who hacked into the account — and those that are indirect, such as the loss of customers who no longer trust a small business after the latter suffers a security breach. Professional risks: Risks to one’s professional career that stem from breaches. Obviously, cybersecurity professionals are at risk for career damage if a breach occurs under their watch and is determined to have happened due to negligence, but other types of professionals can suffer career harm due to a breach as well. C-level executives can be fired, board members can be sued, and so on. Professional damage can also occur if hackers release private communications or data that shows someone in a bad light — for example, records that a person was disciplined for some inappropriate action, sent an email containing objectionable material, and so on. Business risks: Risks to a business similar to the professional risks to an individual. Internal documents leaked after breach of Sony Pictures painted various the firm in a negative light vis-à-vis some of its compensation practices. Personal risks: Many people store private information on their electronic devices, from explicit photos to records of participation in activities that may not be deemed respectable by members of their respective social circles. Such data can sometimes cause significant harm to personal relationships if it leaks. Likewise, stolen personal data can help criminals steal people’s identities, which can result in all sorts of personal problems. Ultimately, cybersecurity will have different implications depending on the industry you’re operating in and the challenges you are facing.