por Rebeca | Feb 16, 2022 | Sin Categoria
The privileged access management for companies is very important. Remote working is here to stay, and the channel is pivotal in supporting organisations in their efforts to maintain the best protection against cyber attacks whether they’re adopting a hybrid, or fully remote working model. Channel partners with a rich portfolio of security solutions are in the ideal position to facilitate these flexible models and provide organisations with the seamless IT support they need to connect workers securely, irrespective of their location.
At the heart of remote cyber security is privileged access management (PAM), the protection around privileged and sensitive user accounts, which are the crown jewels for cyber criminals. For the channel, PAM creates a new revenue stream and further business opportunities with their customers. However, while having unrestricted access to clients’ IT estates is part and parcel for a service provider, it does pin a huge target on their backs.
Offering comprehensive PAM solutions will enable channel partners to secure, manage and monitor access to their own privileged accounts as well as those of their clients, keeping the most valuable keys to their network safe.
Privileged Access Management for companies can provide partners with greater security not only for their clients but for their own accounts too
In today’s cyber environment, stolen and misused privileged accounts—and the access they afford to sensitive and critical data and hosts—can be used to inflict tremendous damage.
Implementing a PAM tool reduces the likelihood of privileged credentials being compromised or misused in both external breaches and insider attacks. Such tools also help reduce the impact of an attack when it occurs by radically shortening the time during which the organization is unaware that it is under attack or being subverted.
Privileged access management for companies
Cloud security, anomaly detection, and securing the software development life-cycle also can be addressed with a PAM tool, as can regulatory compliance and operational efficiency.
PAM solutions need to be aware of not only who a user is, but also to which resources they should be granted privileged access. To enhance security even further, strong PAM solutions tend to have their own layers of security capabilities. That is, they will have the ability to limit user access not only by role, but also by other factors such as time and location, ensuring that even a user who has been authenticated only sees the specific resource to be accessed, and only when appropriate.
As a quick example, a given user may be granted privileged access to a server to do an update because they have the role of server admin; but the PAM administrators might also limit that privileged access, for business reasons or simply as a security practice, to a two-hour window starting at midnight, for example. Outside of that time frame, even with the login credentials, the user won’t be able to access the server for good or malicious reasons.
Multifactor Authentication (MFA) & Privileged Account Management (PAM) for companies
If a user has successfully authenticated to the system, the PAM system will provide the user the privileged access they have been granted. Of course, that’s entirely appropriate, when the user is who they say they are – but potentially disastrous when a privileged user within the system is not who they claim to be.
Strong PAM solutions have safeguards to protect against this very situation. Session management tools, for example, will alert the security team (or automatically kill the session) when the activity undertaken by a privileged user is outside of defined parameters, such as a purported database administrator who suddenly begins to rapidly execute a large number of queries against multiple databases.
But what of the case where a hacker has stolen a DBA’s credentials, gained entrance to the system, and then undertakes activity which does not raise alarms, such as running an occasional query as the legitimate DBA might do?
This is the kind of situation prevented by MFA and PAM solutions working together to truly provide a layered defense in depth. Where strong PAM solutions excel at providing only the appropriate access to privileged users, a strong MFA capability in front of PAM helps to ensure that users are who they say are before they ever reach the point at which privileges must be determined and granted.
It’s a layered strategy that truly helps security teams and administrators create a defense-in-depth – and in today’s networked environments that are subjected to constant probing and hacking attempts, it’s a solid way to increase a firm’s cybersecurity.
References:
(1) Newsweek.com
(2) secureworld.com
(3) Dark Reading
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por Rebeca | Feb 10, 2022 | Ciberseguridad, Noticias, Soffid
A convergent approach to enterprise security
Globalization, easy access to information, exponential growth of immigration and society diversity, worldwide political and cultural conflicts, all these phenomenons have impacted the threat paradigm of security that has also been immutably changed by domestic and foreign terrorism, and it is important a convergent approach to enterprise security.
Everywhere you go, organizations are in the middle of some sort of transformation. Whether it’s modernizing the platforms that have been there forever, trying to launch a data center in the cloud, or trying to manage manufacturing or IoT devices more efficiently, the size and shape of our digital footprint is changing. We no longer just have a “digital network”, or “digital services”, we now have an entire “digital ecosystem” and even that keeps expanding.
There’s no denying that we’re living in a time where the cybersecurity threat landscape is increasingly dynamic and complex. The landscape includes cloud-native environments, Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC), containers, secrets management, remote work
These new technologies and practices
Logically require security tooling to help address potential vulnerabilities and respond to threats and incidents when they do occur. However, there is a cost associated with the increased tool introduction and use.
Using multiple security applications results in identity sprawl. When a company uses siloed systems to manage its security risks without synchronizing them all, it creates a different identity for each application user. Few applications do not connect with the central server, forcing organizations to manage multiple identities.
Many organizations using cloud services have to suffer through various identity management. Organizations need to resolve identity sprawl issues to strengthen their cybersecurity and maximize security alerts. As every identity requires different credentials and passwords, it is impossible to keep track of them. Therefore, companies use the same passwords and account credentials for every application, pushing them to credential-stuffing.
If a company’s one application is targeted and breached, the attackers will gain access to the rest of the security applications and then sell this information on the dark web. From here, threats snowball, leaving the organization vulnerable to considerable brute force and hybrid attacks.
But how to have a convergent approach to enterprise security?
Product sprawl wastes many resources as the IT teams have to work overboard in software maintenance and individually train every employee to use all security products. It also wastes valuable time finding, opening, navigating, obtaining vital information, and switching between multiple products.
Product sprawl negatively affects individual and team productivity. When the teams have to operate numerous applications, it reduces the opportunity to work together and stay on the same page. Moreover, the transition from existing tools also becomes impossible as it requires training sessions to get them up to speed with every software.
What about Convergence?
We can define Convergence as the identification of security risks and interdependencies between business functions and processes within the Enterprise, and the consequential development of managed business process solutions to address those risks and interdependencies. This definition captures a significant shift from the emphasis on security as a purely functional activity, to security as an “added-value” to the overall mission of business. This is an
t starting point because it essentially changes the way the concept of security is positioned within the enterprise.
Future and approach to enterprise security
Managing the successful convergence of information and operational technology is central to protecting your business and achieving crucial competitive advantage
Identity Governance and Administration is– and to have effective security must be– that common meeting point of many different security disciplines.
To efficiently and effectively draw the security perimeter, it makes more sense to have a single, holistic view of organizational identities where you can determine policy, view posture, enact compliance, and respond to risk.
GRC (Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance) is the future of cyber security. A well-thought GRC strategy improves security objectives by better decision making, information quality, and team collaboration.
Cybersecurity platforms – A convergent approach
Makes it easy to transition new employees without extensive training. As the previous cybersecurity system needs to be manually monitored and tracked, GRC has automated firewalls. High-quality antiviruses and firewalls make businesses more secure, catching and destroying viruses before they breach the central data platform.
For organizations that are already worried about their cybersecurity incident response preparation. Once the accelerated pace of migration to the cloud brings on new and unique challenges. So in an attempt to close these security gaps, organizations spend on the latest cybersecurity tools.
Some special accounts, credentials, and secrets allow anyone who gains possession of them to control organization resources, disable security systems. Access vast amounts of sensitive data. Their power can provide unlimited access, so it’s no surprise that internal auditors and compliance regulations set specific controls and reporting requirements for the usage of these credentials. Interconnected IT ecosystems streamline business processes but often obfuscate core risks that need to be identified. Analyzed, and monitored to create an enterprise Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) vision. Soffid is is equipped with federation functionalities, privileged account management, low level permits, separation of functions and recertification processes.
Final words about enterprise security
Our intelligent analytics continuously monitor for and identify new access. Risks while providing native connectors with GRC solutions so risk managers can create holistic enterprise risk management strategies.
Sources:
(1) riskandcompliancemagazine.com
(2) Pwc
(3) Deloitte
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por Rebeca | Ene 26, 2022 | Ciberseguridad, Recursos, Soffid
Companies vulnerable and cybersecirity as priority
companies vulnerable and cybersecirity as priority
Recently, there has been a staggering rise in cybersecurity threats. This is primarily due to the coronavirus pandemic. Increased geopolitical tensions, and cloud and IoT adoption have made companies vulnerable to more frequent and damaging cyber-attacks creating a greater need for security infrastructure and talent.
It is fair to say that convergence can be good for vendors but challenging for users. For many organizations, the prospect of any software platform conversion means more costs, more and possibly different licenses, and added usage. Also, product convergence eliminates competition, potentially leading to higher prices and fewer choices.
Today’s organizations need a cloud-based platform that supports centralized management of remote, mobile, and access to the data center or cloud, and:
- Unifies access policies for on-premise and cloud deployments
- Addresses the nuances of enterprise mobile security
- Reports on the health of all appliances and devices
- Provides a mass-provision workspace for deploying patches and features
Other challenges these organizations face include
- Error-prone access management.
Managing access security appliances on a box-by-box basis is time-consuming for resource-strapped IT teams – and it’s an approach that is prone to error.
- Disparate point solutions.
Separate solutions for remote, local, and mobile enterprise access increase equipment expenditures, operational overhead, and compliance complexity.
- Burdensome bulk operations.
Without centralized management capabilities, IT teams can’t easily perform firmware updates and policy changes across the enterprise, or replicate configuration and polices from one appliance to many.
Identity
Identity started with a focus on humans. Thus, identity is something that can describe a person with a consistent set of details/attributes. But in the era of digital transformation, it is not limited to human identity only.
companies vulnerable architectures have relied primarily on the ability to authenticate user credentials to a directory store and grant fine-grained access to business applications based on statically assigned privileges, regardless of any inherent risk posed by a user.
This model no longer reflects an IT landscape in which a mobile workforce than can use unmanaged smart devices. Unless from anywhere in the world to access sensitive data in cloud-hosted business applications.
A comprehensive identity platform allows for a common user experience across multiple applications and systems (both legacy and modern). In addition, it will enable consumers and distributed workforces to use the same authentication method to access applications and resources across different enterprises.
Soffid helps organizations increase the maturity of their program. By protecting your company from breaches, thereby, still aiding in productivity, competitiveness, and maintenance of regulatory framework.
Sources:
(1) computer.org
(2) Technology Hits
(3) Solutionsreview
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por Rebeca | Ene 5, 2022 | Ciberseguridad, Soffid
Cybercriminals
Throughout 2021, global news seemed to ricochet between the rapid spread of new iterations of COVID-19 and cyber criminality — both becoming increasingly creative and disruptive as they mutate in a battle for survival; both interlinked as cybercriminals profit from rapid digitalization forced by COVID-19 lockdowns. In a recent interview, a prominent cybersecurity executive pointed out that alongside birth, death and taxes, the only other guarantee in our current lives is the exponential growth of digital threats.
Because security is not built into new technology from the ground up, cyber criminals quickly get a foothold and cause untold damage before we can catch up.
Much has been said about the cybersecurity skills shortage. Millions of cybersecurity positions are unfilled, and this is causing serious problems at many organizations. Cybercriminals the magnitude of the skills shortage is based on a specific model of doing security. This model is reactive rather than proactive and takes a labor-intensive, “brute force” approach to threat response. We need more bodies in cybersecurity because our methodology is to “throw more bodies at the problem.”
For example, rather than doing threat modeling and building strong, proactive controls as they develop an application, organizations scan for vulnerabilities, manually analyze the scans and manually remediate the problems — or else let the vulnerabilities accumulate. Cybercriminals this consumes a lot of resources and ultimately does not leave an organization significantly safer than if it had done nothing.
Moving Beyond Brute Force
While most people may see the logic in moving beyond this scattershot approach, it has an incredibly strong gravitational pull. IT governance policies at many organizations require the use of antiquated security technology and processes when other approaches would provide better protection using fewer resources. At the same time, the rapidly evolving marketplace means that development teams face continual pressure to crank out applications even faster than they do today. This makes it easy to rush into development rather than taking the time to architect an application to be secure before coding even begins.
But what if we were to break from the gravitational pull of reactive security and refocus on what really matters? We could build security into new technologies as they are developed, rather than adding it as an afterthought. We could become consistent, prioritized, focused, structured and strategic in the use of people, processes and tools. help developers learn to write safer code by providing real-time feedback.
At the same time, we need to be making security more visible. If users had an idea which software was safer and which was less safe, they would choose accordingly. The White House issued an executive order in May that can potentially move us in this direction. For example, it requires software vendors to provide a “Software Bill of Materials”. Something of an “ingredients list” for an application. We need dramatically more information about why we should believe something. Secure before we trust it with important things — like elections, finances and healthcare, for example.
Proactive cybersecurity strategies
Aggregate a multitude of perspectives, which brings the benefit of innovation, problem-solving and consensus-building.
From the growing adoption of distributed cloud to the proven benefits of remote mobile workforces. The attack surface for bad actors is ever-widening. This means the requirements for network security have also evolved with the growing threats of increasingly distributed systems.
Security should not take a backseat to innovation in digital businesses. Of course, innovation and speed will require businesses to build secure systems, which means we can no longer afford to implement security only at the service level. We need to apply adaptable solutions from the architecture level that will change with digital business requirements.
See how Soffid can help you stay ahead of the curve in a rapidly evolving digital world. Let us know how we can help you
Sources:
(1) Forbes
(2) Information Week
por Rebeca | Dic 29, 2021 | Sin Categoria
Organizations start asking how they could defend their systems and people differently.
organizations security and trends
Organizations security and trends – The world has changed since the global pandemic broke out in 2020 which has helped cybercriminals.
Homeworking
The ongoing digitization of society, also and the increasingly online nature of our lives. Mean opportunities about for phishers, hackers, afterwards scammers, and extortionists.
As we head into 2022, there is, unfortunately, no sign of this letting up. This is why it’s essential for individuals and businesses to be aware of the ever-growing. Avenues of attack as well as what can be done to mitigate the risks!
While the covid-19 pandemic upended workplaces and ushered in rapid digital transformation. The turmoil around cybercrime has remained constant: attackers are always changing to evade detection.
Importance of Flexible, customer-first solutions
Flexible, customer-first solutions have emerged to meet ever-changing circumstances to keep organizations secure and confident against cyber threats. In the new year, indeed as technology and workplace trends evolve and laws and regulations change, cybersecurity is emerging.
Enterprise spending on cybersecurity is expected to hold steady in 2022, as studies show that nearly all CISOs are getting a budget increase or level funding in the new year—only a small fraction of security chiefs will see their budgets fall.
CSO’s
2021 Security Priorities Study found that 44% of security leaders expect their budgets to increase in the upcoming 12 months; that’s a slight bump-up from the 41% who saw their budgets increase in 2021 over 2020. Fifty-four percent of respondents say they expect their budgets to remain the same over the next 12 months.
According to PwC’s 2022 Global Digital Trust Insights report, “investments continue to pour into cybersecurity” with 69% of responding organizations predicting a rise in their cyber spending for 2022. Some even expect a surge in spending. With 26% saying they anticipate a 10% or higher spike in cyber spending for new year.
Meanwhile, tech research and advisory firm Gartner estimated that spending on information security. Risk management will total $172 billion in 2022. Up from $155 billion in 2021 and $137 billion the year before.
Firstly on organizations security and trends
It’s worth knowing that Gartner’s predictions come from Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo Americas, which ran virtually in October 2021.
The key theme of discussion this year was to explore the lessons learned from the ongoing disruption and uncertainty. organizations secure on their page, Gartner states that they revealed their top strategic predictions for 2022 and beyond. These are:
- 30% of corporate teams will be without a boss due to the self-directed and hybrid nature of work.
- By 2025, synthetic data will reduce personal customer data collection, avoiding 70% of privacy violation sanctions.
- 80% of CIOs surveyed will list modular business redesign, through composability, as a top 5 reason for accelerated business performance.
- year 2025, 75% of companies will “break up” with poor-fit customers as the cost of retaining them eclipses good-fit customer acquisition costs.
- 2026, a 30% increase in developer talent across Africa will help transform IT into a world-leading start-up ecosystem, rivaling Asia in venture fund growth.
- also same year, non-fungible token (NFT) gamification will propel an enterprise into the top 10 highest-valued companies.
- 2027, low orbit satellites will extend internet coverage to an additional billion of the world’s poorest people, raising 50% of them out of poverty.
- By 2024, a cyberattack will so damage critical infrastructure that a member of the G20 will reciprocate with a declared physical attack.
Conclusion
There is no such thing as the perfect plan, and many believe the future is unpredictable. However, we wouldn’t have weather forecasts. Organizations we wouldn’t have the list above along with the countless lists by other cybersecurity specialists.
The future is predictable by looking at the past and making. The time is right to take stock of what has gone before and make. Some reasonable assumptions and predictions about what our future holds. For there is no doubt that change is coming.
