CIOs say that while evolving technology has not only improved the business process, it has also provided higher opportunities for nefarious actors too
Technology has advanced drastically in the past decades. This has helped accelerate business growth and revenue at high speed as well. However, the same technological advancement has enabled cyber threat actors to improve their attack methods as well.
In the past few years, enterprises have seen varied cyber-attack methods that were never seen before. The major issue is that these attacks and their criticality will increase over time. To mitigate such attacks, organizations need to be empowered with better security tools. Legacy measures for cybersecurity will no longer work.
CISOs point out that the majority of the cyberattacks in the current scenario are highly targeted. Threat actors spend a considerable amount of time collating data regarding their prey; this may take up to several months.
After patiently waiting for the most opportune time, cyber-attacks are launched to achieve the highest benefits. Enterprises that don’t invest effectively in cybersecurity are the weakest when subjected to cyber-attacks.
Besides mitigating zero-day liabilities, organizations also need to save their endpoints and create a smart and effective cyber breach response strategy.
Importance of cyber threat intelligence (CTI)
As per CISOs, threat intelligence should be evidence-based wisdom that includes implications, context, indicators, mechanisms, and actionable insights about emerging or existing issues or hazards. It can then be utilized to inform decisions related to the enterprise’s response to that issue or hazard.
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In simpler terms, it includes the processing and collection of data regarding nefarious actors and the methods used for defense measures. CTI measures generally feature machine learning and artificial intelligence and blend other security measures to ensure proper data processing. It helps enterprises to be proactive rather than reactive with their cybersecurity strategies.
Security leaders feel that when supported properly, human analysts can make sense of the huge volume of available data. Such solutions will help enterprises to understand the risks in their cybersecurity strategy and create effective defensive methods.
This creates a path to cyber resilience. CTI helps IT departments effectively manage and prevent zero-day attacks by consistently alerting them to liabilities and compromise indicators.
Unlike tech strategies like SASE that is based on security data processing and collection, CTI is less dependent on automation and more on human employees. Accurate CTI needs not only the correct tools but also intuitive and trained analysts.
CISOs accept that there are serious challenges to this trend. The majority of the CTI practitioners received minimal to no training for Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) techniques and risks.
The increased complexity of current cybersecurity measures has made intelligence-based security measures mandatory. It is completely in the hands of businesses to invest in the right people (researchers, analysts, etc.) and tools.
Protecting endpoints
Security leaders acknowledge that stripping down cybersecurity to the core will result in enterprises understanding that it is only endpoint protection. However, the importance of endpoint security has been further highlighted during the remote workforce.
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When employees connect from several different locations, it becomes tougher for enterprises to protect the entry points from malware entry and other malicious elements gaining a foothold into the networks.
BYOD policies have an increased impact on security practices as well. Data protection is the major goal of endpoint security. Most endpoint security measures operate at the client-server model, while some get delivered as SaaS.
