Invest in Proactive Prevention Before It’s Too Late
The brave new world ahead
The Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powel characterized the state of the economy in early November 2020. “We’re not going back to the same economy; we’re going back to a different economy.”1 The new economy is one that we’ve experienced since early last year—involving rising reliance on e-commerce, expanding remote workforce, telemedicine and distance learning. The common denominator between all these aspects is that they are all conducted over the global Internet.
The heavy reliance on cloud computing highlighted the urgent need to secure the network’s new endpoints that extended to homes of remote workers, students, schools and corner convenience stores. Sophisticated cybercriminals recognized the opportunity and quickly sought to capitalize on it. While it’s clear that your organization must protect its network and digital assets, it can be challenging to determine where to start and where to find professional help. Many enterprises are in this same boat.
The 3 + 1 security pillars
A robust security posture covers three primary areas: access control, data protection and security insight. We add a fourth pillar that is even more essential: a recovery plan using air-gapped cloud data protection.
Access management
This approach is your first line of defense. If cybercriminals fail to gain access to your network, then you win. Defend against potential attacks by adopting a zero-trust policy that applies to insiders and outsiders. It is not a secret that employees using personal computers for business may unintentionally give cybercriminals entry to your network.
Use Identity Access Management (IAM) to keep unauthorized users from gaining access or taking actions beyond their authority. Utilize multi-factor authentication and need-based controls to enhance protections.
Data protection
Enterprises and cybercriminals share the same view of customers’ data—as a valuable business asset. The best defense you have against cybercriminals is to render your data useless to them. Encryption is your key to achieving that goal.
Companies must encrypt data throughout its lifecycle—when in transit through a network, when at rest stored on different storage devices and when being used by applications. By closing the cycle of protection, you drastically diminish the likelihood of data loss.
Proactive management
Having clear real-time visibility into your environment is essential for detecting and stopping disruptive attacks. Management tools that provide a full view of all your properties are necessary for efficient monitoring, detecting anomalies, alerting IT staff and proactively foiling cyberattacks.
Air-gapped cloud backup
No security posture is complete without a workable plan that deals with the aftermath of a successful attack. In short, you need a great answer for, “What do we do when our data goes missing or is corrupted?” The answer is more straightforward than one would think. Invest in an air-gapped data protection solution that maintains a usable copy of the information you can use to recover from a disruptive attack. Air-gapped devices are not connected to your company network and do not get impacted by an attack on your enterprise.
Be safe, not sorry
Adopting an edge-to-cloud security posture and investing in cloud backup data protection are your best strategies for keeping bad actors away from your assets and for recovering from disruptions. A modest investment in security keeps cybercrime’s headaches away.
- CNN Business, November 17, 2020. “We’re never going back to the old economy, Fed Chairman says.”
