Today’s crowded technology landscape is only expected to get more crowded as emerging technologies gain traction. Organizations require visibility across this complex, distributed environment to ensure security.
Cybersecurity must be seen not as an IT function but rather as a company priority, given the heightened threat environment today. To stay one step ahead of cybercriminals and address emerging threats, businesses must invest in new solutions and tools, which requires a cultural transformation for many companies. Enterprises, however, need a holistic view of their deployment across every department of the company for these investments to be truly effective.
This has always been challenging, but given the current pace of technological advancement, it has gotten even more challenging.
Balancing Security Concerns and IT Transformation
In recent years, businesses have focused on digitizing their processes, and COVID-19 has further accelerated these efforts. Companies gain much from converting manual operations to digital systems, including enhanced customer satisfaction, reduced human error, cost savings, and increased efficiency.
However, there can also be a wide range of security risks if transformations are not adequately planned and executed.
More systems online may increase exposure to increasingly sophisticated cyber-attacks, whether they are internal systems like CRMs and ERPs or external-facing e-commerce applications. Because of this, businesses must be sure about the security of their current apps before starting any digital transformation projects.
Moreover, it is crucial to clearly define technology roadmaps and business objectives to ensure that the expected commercial benefits are achieved without exposing critical data and enterprise systems to a cyber-attack.
By dedicating time up front to these tasks, future projects can be built on a solid foundation that both maintains system dependability and reduces the possibility of a successful attack.
Managing Vulnerabilities in a Globally Distributed Environment
Large, geographically dispersed teams are common in most organizations today. Businesses that use technology across time zones and countries often have support staff dispersed worldwide, which can raise additional security issues.
When addressing risks and cybersecurity incidents, the distributed nature of specialized security teams and the interconnectedness of these sites can be particularly challenging. Businesses can’t evaluate their security posture, address vulnerabilities, and respond to potential threats without a thorough understanding of the entire infrastructure.
It should be no surprise that gaining visibility into the global technology infrastructure is the first step in resolving this problem. With this knowledge, businesses can establish policies that specify who is in charge of maintaining security and how to respond to an attack, regardless of location.
To ensure that these initiatives do not unintentionally expose the organization, it is also crucial that these policies detail how security should be implemented for every IT project in the future.
Also Read: Top 6 API Security Risks That Go Unnoticed
Security Must Not Come at the Cost of Innovation
It is crucial for businesses to remain innovative and agile. Overly tight cybersecurity regulations can make it difficult for the workforce to perform their tasks successfully and increase security risks by forcing them to shadow IT or look for workarounds. Assessing the organization’s key risks and determining the strategies and mitigations most likely to manage them while balancing employee productivity goals is preferable.
Given the large attack surface of businesses today, this might seem overwhelming. Fortunately, institutions like NIST have created frameworks for best practices that can significantly help businesses as they strive to find the right balance between efficiency and security.
Businesses entering 2023 can expect an increase in cybersecurity challenges due to them becoming more digital and distributed and the general adoption of technology like Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.
Organizations that take immediate action to acquire crucial visibility into their infrastructure and make the required security improvements will be those that are most likely to fend off threats successfully. Organizations can quickly scale with a modern cybersecurity framework as new IT projects are added and address new security challenges.
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