Page 10 - Security Today, March 2022

The Rush to Digitalization Cybersecurity has become a top business priority
By Kev Eley
Over the last year, there has been unwavering focus on digital transformation driven by the need for greater connectivity. Despite the new levels of in- novation being achieved by businesses worldwide, organizations often overlook the need to secure new technologies with appropriate cybersecurity solutions. The adoption and expansion of connected devices has left everyone, businesses in particular, more vulnerable, to a greater threat sur- face than ever before with an increased risk of being hacked.
A report from McKinsey estimated that in just eight weeks, the pandemic ushered in the equivalent of a five-year leap in digital adoption. To continue to build upon the digital transformation and momentum created from the pandemic, organizations need to pri- oritize the security of new applications and offerings by implement- ing and scaling up automated detection and mitigation capabilities.
There can be no room for error when it comes to protecting es- sential business operations and the technologies powering them. A lack of cybersecurity investment can hinder an organization’s business growth. Cybersecurity teams need to overcome this bar- rier to enable a successful future. By deploying threat detection and prevention measures to minimize disruption, they can secure greater business agility and customer trust in this new digital era.
NEW SECURITY VULNERABILITIES
According to a Statista survey, 77% of the respondents believe cybersecurity should have higher priority.
In the aftermath of the rush to digitalization, trust and se- curity have become critical in keeping customers and users safe when using online platforms. Many organizations often lag be- hind when it comes to backing up new technologies with the right cybersecurity and fail to recognize the urgency.
The challenge for business to adopt new technologies is har- nessing the right cybersecurity innovation. Deploying new appli- cations and technologies exposes organizations to a wider threat landscape, yet if they fail to invest in innovative technologies, they risk falling behind their competitors. Traditional preventa- tive measures are not enough to protect organizations from the evolving threat landscape.
To bridge the gap between evolving their offerings and secur- ing their operations, organizations need to address the need for heightened security to keep up with digital demand. They should consider cybersecurity as a top priority to ensure effective out- comes from digital transformation.
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION WITHOUT DISRUPTION
As digitalization remains at the forefront of business agendas across the board, security priorities and business priorities have become interchangeable. The shift to accelerated digitalization has had a knock-on effect on an organization’s cybersecurity strategy, resulting in more sophisticated data breaches and ran- somware attacks.
Security teams must reconsider how to best protect increas- ingly valuable digital assets, including customer data. Changing circumstances in business are evolving the role of the CISO. CI- SOs are becoming more involved in shaping business priorities and responses. It is essential that CISOs get involved beyond the basics to mitigate new risks that organizations face as they ex- pand their digital offerings. They must ensure that they have an open line of communication with leadership teams to effectively relay security concerns. Security needs to be synonymous will all business activity to ensure a seamless experience.
To further protect their operations from emerging threats, business leaders need to consider putting fresh security strategies in place. With a larger number of security teams now adopting a Zero Trust approach, they must consider how they are locking- in secure controls around vulnerable internal and external data across the entire network. The Zero Trust approach is based on removing inherent trust within networks and individual sectors. Security teams gain greater insights into user activity by placing additional levels of authentication within the network. As more connected devices are deployed, Zero Trust decreases the risk of unauthorized users leveraging access to privileged information.
It is good practice for organizations to assess their access points. A combination of virtual and physical authentication protocols can strengthen an organization’s security posture. Implementing a log of employee attendance as well as a record of network logins can highlight unauthorized entry and make it clear to security teams when a breach has been attempted. Access to this information will arm security teams with the intelligence they need to detect risks and vulnerable access points. It will en- sure they can focus on digital transformation without disruption.
Combining these practices with automated detection and mitigation security capabilities will put organizations in a solid position to expand their own digital ecosystem whilst being able to offer up-to-date technology offerings to their customers. An automated threat intelligence solution enables SOC teams to cen- tralize, combine, and enrich data from multiple sources before the data is ingested by other security systems or viewed by analysts on security operations teams. With these measures in place, organi- zations can move forward with a threat-ready response. They can scale up digitization efforts and achieve new business potential.
For digital organizations, cybersecurity is an important driver of business continuity and customer experience, and this is a prior- ity that will continue to shape the future of their growth strategies. They need to enhance their existing cybersecuri-
ty models as well as introduce new capabilities to
enable agile development within their operations
as businesses harness an unprecedented level of
connectivity.
Kev Eley is the vice president of sales, Europe at LogRhythm.
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