Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2022: Top 5 Priorities for CISOs

Cybersecurity-Awareness-Month-2022-Top-5-Priorities-for-CISOs
Cybersecurity-Awareness-Month-2022-Top-5-Priorities-for-CISOs

As per the CISA guidelines, the theme of cybersecurity awareness month 2022 is “See Yourself in Cyber,” which will focus on the people’s part of cybersecurity even if it might seem like a complex subject.

Cyber Attackers are leveraging human flaws as vectors to bypass the security layer in the business network. SecOps teams need to secure their IT infrastructure from social engineering attacks with proactive cybersecurity measures. CISOs can leverage this opportunity to educate the workforce about cyber security to make secure decisions at all times.

According to a recent report by the World Economic Forum titled “The Global Risks Report 2022,” approximately 95% of cybersecurity issues can be traced back to manual error, and insider threats, whether intentional or unintentional, represent nearly 43% of the breaches.

CISOs should consider designing and implementing a resilient cybersecurity policy and tech stack to stay secure in the age of sophisticated modern threats. Here are a few priorities for the SecOps teams to consider for cybersecurity awareness month 2022 to strengthen their cyber defense strategy.

Also Read: Cyber Attackers Target Trusted Cloud Applications in This Digital Era

Reduce the unknown attack surface

SecOps teams that depend on IT system management databases will not ensure accuracy in their processes. Cybersecurity teams need to be aware of the entire business network and its weakest links that expose the IT infrastructure to various threats and vulnerabilities. Cybercriminals are on the prowl to identify the devices that are not managed or patched regularly to use them as vectors to infiltrate the network. CISOs should consider implementing robust tools and work processes to keep track of the entire network’s inventory, including assets, systems, devices, servers, applications, and other tools, to determine the potential attack surface areas. Enterprises can integrate the best external attack surface management (EASM) and internal Cyber Asset Attack Surface Management (CAASM) tools to get a holistic view of the entire attack surface area. Cybersecurity industry veterans consider real-time visibility as the foundation of all cyber defense approaches.

Embrace a continuous assessment approach

Organizations cannot rely on timely penetration tests to stay secure in this digital era. Cybersecurity experts have already prioritized continuous monitoring and assessment. However, it is crucial to make strategic changes to the process that enables enterprises to make continuous decisions depending on continuous monitoring. Even if the organizations leverage VPN to authenticate, the users will not be able to help the SecOps teams to gather actionable insights. Because in this authentication process, there might be many indicators of compromise (IOC) that exhibit that the data, asset, system, or device has been exposed to unacceptable risk. CISOs should consider implementing stringent continuous assessment protocols that scan the entire IT infrastructure in real-time to identify vulnerable or compromised elements and effectively respond to them. Once there are potential signs of a vulnerability, malware, ransomware, or phishing attacks, the system should be capable of detecting, responding, and mitigating it in real time.

Developing the best cybersecurity tech stack

The current cybersecurity market has multiple products, applications, and tools that enterprises can leverage in their tech stack to strengthen their defense strategies. However, CISOs should consider diversifying the security tech stack with multiple products that do not seamlessly integrate with each other. Implementing siloed tools in the security IT infrastructure will not be able to offer a holistic view of cybersecurity. Enterprises do not have to replace the entire cybersecurity technology stack with the latest tools in the market because it can be expensive and time-consuming. CISOs should consider modernizing their tech stack with new tools that seamlessly integrate with the current one.

Developing a landing zone has become essential

A recent research report by Gartner titled “Managing Privileged Access in Cloud Infrastructure” predicts that by 2023 approximately 75% of the security failures might derive from a lack of effective management of identities, access, and privileges. Hence developing a resilient landing zone as a foundation needs to be a top priority for cybersecurity awareness month 2022. CISOs should consider building a landing zone that is configured to incorporate a unified, standardized, secured cloud infrastructure, governance policies, and workflows to ensure a scalable operational and governance model. It is one of the most effective ways to optimize cybersecurity expenditure, efficiency, and compliance adherence. It can be a challenging task for the SecOps teams to deploy security and compliance policies throughout the cloud infrastructure and ensure a successful implementation. CISOs can develop a strategic landing zone that allows the user to utilize cloud resources securely in real time. Implementing automation in the cybersecurity tech stack will ensure the organization’s work processes and data are secure.

Also Read: Managed Service Providers Should Be Alert and Strengthen Cyber defenses

Design a zero-trust network architecture

Malicious actors are becoming more sophisticated because of the evolving cybercrime industry. Threat actors have easy access to cybercrime-as-a-service, which has enhanced their capabilities to deploy a full-blown cyber-attack on the network. There is also a surge in the number of Ransomware-as-a-service providers that help the new attackers to accomplish their malicious goals. Zero-trust security architecture ensures that all the users gaining access to the business network, whether internal or external, needs to be authenticated in real-time. This approach can help the SecOps team to close various cybersecurity gaps in the business network. CISOs should consider designing and implementing a robust zero-trust network architecture as one of their top priorities.

CISOs should consider making the most out of Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2022 by drafting a vision for 2023 and evaluating its progress next year.

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