Hope is Not a Security plan, & Neither is Ignoring the Risk—Invest in a Security Solution

The kaleidoscopic nature of the digital era means more dynamics are constantly being added to the cyber landscape.

As an AI-embracing cohort, people are not exempt from these changes and have been taken to like. What are we, if not versatile?

The digital evolutionary leap has helped people achieve progress and paved the way for several new cybercrimes, such as hacking, phishing, malware attacks, and identity theft.

The blooming dark web has added more to the woes of existing caveats like misinformation, privacy concerns, and digital divides. Now comes the quintessential question: How do you be cyber smart?

Cybersecurity is everyone’s business, not just IT’s

Every company is a data company. The importance of cybersecurity and the repercussions of ignoring security by-laws cannot be emphasized enough, all while hoping your organization isn’t big enough to be a target of a cyberattack.

MYTH#1: My organization is too small to be targeted by hackers.

Regardless of your organization’s size, every individual handling crucial operations or remotely dealing with business data should have cybersecurity awareness.

Similarly, organizations must have systems to keep everyone educated about cybersecurity. Even with IT and security teams in place, maintaining enterprise security intact is the responsibility of every individual.

After all, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and in cybersecurity, that link is often human.

Your data is like your toothbrush; don’t share it with everyone

All business data—not just overtly sensitive data like PII, PCI, or  PHI—directly or indirectly contributing to an organization’s processes is sensitive.

Say you share an intranet link with another peer for testing, and because of the URL’s length constraints, you use a third-party URL shortening tool.

Little do you know, sharing improperly parsed URLs (having username and password information embedded to facilitate user login) could expose user credentials on its own; you might as well be biting a bare hook with no bait.

MYTH#2: My data (or the data I access) isn’t valuable.

But what data should be shared and what should not?

This is where data classification factors in. With a precise data classification solution, you can frame a policy that spots sensitive data based on the rules you devise, using a RegEx pattern, based on file properties, or matching via keywords.

To rephrase a quote of Sherlock Holmes catering to this situation, when you have spotted the necessary (data), whatever remains, however significant, must be valueless.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of firewall

The day we call a cyberattack a common occurrence is not far, much like how the flu became common, but unlike the common flu, a cyberattack can’t be self-diagnosed.

The same code dynamics that make an application powerful and effective are adopted to target thousands of applications in an attack to exfiltrate data or inject malware into the network. So much for striving for progressive advancements, suitable?

MYTH#3: Firewalls, stronger passwords, and antivirus software guarantee protection against hackers.

Traditional security measures, such as firewalls or antivirus solutions, only fare well against signature-based attacks. And by now, you should’ve anticipated that threats and attacks, too, can evolve.

Shadow IT has tricks up its sleeve, including minimal digital footprints, polymorphic coding, and file-less malware. When you sense such disturbances, you should adopt a versatile security solution that is proactive and reactive as and when needed.

Cybersecurity is like flossing; you know you should, but it’s easy to forget

There are some essentials, some nice-to-haves, and then there is cybersecurity. As featured in several infamous incidents of an organization (and a government at that—Watergate, anyone?) being double-crossed, the cyber era is plagued with insider attacks.

While the sole upside is the introduction of espionage and transnational organized crime genres to the entertainment industry, insider threats are otherwise a digital curse that should be tackled and eliminated instantly.

MYTH#4: Cyber threats only come from external sources.

More than 50% of insider threats are aimed at monetary gains and tarnishing reputation. Turning a blind eye toward the possibility that your organization is free of resentful employees might bode well if it is a charitable one.

A for-profit organization can thrive only in an environment built on Zero Trust and role-based access control. Why tempt fate?

Endpoint security helps you bounce back from data breaches

It’s one thing to be confident about your network security, but having a dedicated security solution goes a long way when you’re trying to keep your business afloat. According to IBM, it takes organizations 197 days to realize they’ve been hit with a data breach, which those organizations wouldn’t have given to have a security solution if they could turn back time!

MYTH#5: We’ll know immediately if our systems are compromised.

An endpoint security solution protects your business data from accidental or deliberate internal attacks, automates patching, keeps shadow IT and rogue devices at bay, handles anomalies, audits data access, and finally, helps keep your organization’s reputation intact.

Get the best dessert if you’re late to the cyber house party!

Discovering potential attack surfaces and deploying solutions for each attack entry point might sound wise.

But you may not anticipate the teething troubles, such as hassles with integrating the solutions with the network architecture, recruiting multiple cyber pros, budgetary inflation, and handling alert fatigue.

A control that is bypassed is worse than having no control at all

Notably, three out of every four organizations use more than 50 security solutions. This is one of those situations where a remedy brings in more issues than it addresses. Multiple solutions do not necessarily mean tight-knit security.

MYTH#6: We’ve invested in sophisticated security tools, so we’re safe.

ManageEngine Endpoint Central, an easy-on-the-wallet security solution, improves your organization’s security posture and reduces high resource footprints by leveraging zero-touch deployment and automation processes that manage attack surface reduction and prevent threats and vulnerabilities.

With Endpoint Central’s Security edition, you get a comprehensive endpoint management and security solution. With its single agent, single dashboard, and single license approach, limitations such as integration hassles and alert fatigue are a thing of the past.

Explore how Endpoint Central tackles data breaches by adopting proactive and reactive measures based on the nature of the attack.