Cybersecurity Trends in 2023

Cybersecurity Trends in 2023

Cybersecurity Trends in 2023

According to a report recently published by the insurer Hiscox, cyberattacks in Spain have an average cost per company of 105.000 euros, almost double compared to 2020, which was 55,000 euros. The cost per company reaches, on average, 78,000 euros worldwide.

The reputational damage must be added to the economic cost, becouse a security breach can cause reluctance or fear among users and clients when hiring their services.

Today we share the trends in cybersecurity in 2023.

Cybersecurity Culture

Businesses will continue to fight phishing, ransomware, and DDoS. Remote work is here to stay, along with the security risks that come with it. Unshielded home networks, untrained employees, and the absence of a cybersecurity culture will pose a serious threat to organizations unless they take the proper precautions. A new geopolitical reality. The ongoing war, coupled with the energy crisis, may result in attacks on critical energy infrastructure.

Security Practices improvement

The CISO is responsible for setting the strategy, but cannot implement that strategy if there is no buy-in from other areas of the organization. It is up to the members of each department to apply the controls that the security team recommends or requires. This disconnect between the expectations of the security team and the actual implementation is where things fall apart. In 2023, organizations will look to solve this problem and place more departmental emphasis on implementing security best practices.

Zero-Trust Architecture

Businesses will address ransomware threats from several ways, from improving cyber skills by working with the security team, to the right security tools such as multi-factor authentication, and training courses. Zero-trust architecture investment to validate access and improve security will increase.

Transparent Cybersecurity with customers

The way companies interact and communicate with their customers will need to change in 2023 as the public becomes increasingly aware of ransomware threats and data privacy issues.

As data breaches become increasingly public, rather than trying to downplay or hide the incident, organizations will need to admit the problem and provide details about the steps they are taking to mitigate the problem and prevent future breaches.

Customers will appreciate this honesty and will be more likely to do business with companies that are open and transparent about their cybersecurity practices.

Visibility and security of connected devices

Leading organizations will target connected device cyber practices by establishing or updating related policies and procedures, updating inventories of their IoT connected devices, monitoring and patching devices, refining device acquisition and disposal practices with security in mind , correlating IoT and IT networks, monitoring connected devices more closely to further secure those endpoints, manage vulnerabilities, and respond to incidents.

Supply chains threats

Today’s hyper-connected global economy has led organizations to rely heavily on their supply chains, with threats evolving in complexity, scale, and frequency, so organizations will continue the drive to innovate and mature their transformation capabilities. risk and security.

Organizations are focusing on implementing and operating identity and access management (IAM) and Zero Trust capabilities that better enforce authorized third-party access to systems and data, and reduce the consequences of a compromised third party.

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Fuentes:

  • Spiceworks.com
  • Venturebeat.com
Key Benefits of Identity and Access Management

Key Benefits of Identity and Access Management

Identity and Access Management (IAM) helps ensure that only authorized people have access. No one else, have access to the technology resources they need to do their jobs.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies have grown uncontrollably. So no longer have enough time and resources to control and manage the access that each user should have to carry out their daily activities. This has created gaps in security that can be disastrous for companies.

This is why managing the life cycle of identities is so important. Since it allows establishing an identity governance model focused on the needs of each company. Likewise, being able to automatically manage tasks such as the creation, deletion, modification and auditing of users. All in the respective applications used in companies.

 

Why is so important IAM?

Today, nearly 100% of advanced attacks rely on exploiting privileged credentials to reach a target’s most sensitive data and applications. If abused, privileged access has the power to disrupt your business. In the face of these modern threats, it is clear that identity has become the new security battlefield. An “assume breach” mindset, based on Zero Trust principles, is absolutely essential. But while cyberattacks are inevitable, the negative business impact is not.

Keep your company safe with the help of a Security and Identity Management strategy

Organizations that apply identity management avoid vulnerabilities derived from improper access by users or the appearance of orphan accounts, among others; that, in short, allow access to the organization’s systems by users who should no longer be able to do so for different reasons. A good identity security strategy is based on the principle of least privilege, whereby users are given only the minimum levels of access necessary to perform their job functions.

The principle of least privilege is generally considered a cybersecurity best practice and is a critical step in protecting privileged access to high-value data and assets.

key benefits of identity management for businesses

Identity access and management is useful in many ways, because it helps you ensure regulatory compliance, promotes cost savings and simplifies the lives of your users, due to the improvement of their experience. These are the main benefits of having an IAM solution:

  • Easy access anywhere
  • It favors the connection between the different parts
  • Improve productivity
  • Optimize User Experience

Do you want to keep your company safe?

This means accurately authenticating the identity, authorizing each identity with the appropriate permissions, and providing access for each of the identities to privileged assets in a structured way, all in a way that can be audited (or accounted for) to ensure that all process is solid.

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Picture: Imagen de Freepik

 

IAM snacks by Soffid: Information Security in health sector

IAM snacks by Soffid: Information Security in health sector

Over the past decade, the cyberthreat to the healthcare industry has increased dramatically, along with the sophistication of cyberattacks. Industry and government both recognize this new era. For each improvement delivered by automation, interoperability, and data analytics, the vulnerability to malicious cyberattacks increases as well.

Cyberattacks are of particular concern for the health sector because attacks can directly threaten not just the security of systems and information but also the health and safety of patients.

Healthcare organizations are attractive targets for cybercriminals for three main reasons:

  • Criminals can quickly sell patient medical and billing information on the darknet for insurance fraud purposes.
  • Ransomware’s ability to lock down patient care and back-office systems make lucrative ransom payments likely.
  • Internet-connected medical devices are susceptible to tampering

 

<a href=’https://www.freepik.es/fotos/medico’>Foto de Médico creado por rawpixel.com – www.freepik.es</a>

Security Issues of teleworking

Security Issues of teleworking

As more businesses turn to remote work, many are asking themselves, “What security issues come with working remotely?”

For most businesses, there are these top 4 security issues with working remotely:

  1. Phishing scams
  2. Unsecured endpoint devices
  3. Home office risks
  4. Network security

Whether you’re new to remote work or have been telecommuting for years, it’s important to understand how working from home affects your business’ cybersecurity. While certain cybersecurity protocols remain the same whether your office is virtual or not, other defenses need to be altered to fit the home office environment for all employees.

Learn what makes remote cybersecurity different, top security issues businesses face, and how your organization can protect itself below.

Regardless of whether workers are remote or not, all employees should understand their personal role in maintaining your business’ cybersecurity. It only takes one wrong click on a phishing email to cost your business hundreds of thousands—or even shut your doors for good.

If most or all of your employees work from home, the responsibility of each individual increases tenfold.
That’s because instead of maintaining cybersecurity standards across one office, standards must be maintained across as many offices as there are employees. Often, these security protocols must be upheld without the help of on-site IT support or management as well.

To achieve the best outcome, managers and IT teams should help teleworkers implement and practice proper cybersecurity whenever possible. Ultimately, however, much of it comes down to individual responsibility. When it comes to security issues with working remotely, teleworkers must understand how and why they contribute to their business’ overall cybersecurity.

Network security refers to the cybersafety measures taken to protect your company’s entire computer network. Your network security could include cloud computing, proactive cybersecurity tactics, segmentation, and more.

Your business may already be protecting its network with some of these or other cybersecurity strategies. If most or all of your employees are suddenly working from home, however, some of your company’s security measures may need to be rapidly revised.

For instance, if your company typically employs a user privilege system, those user authorizations might need to be updated now that workers aren’t in a shared office space. Or if your data is currently stored on external servers accessed through an internal network, you might attempt to move this data to a new storage location.

But changing how you protect your network can lead to unforeseen problems, new vulnerabilities, or security gaps. Under normal circumstances, such changes can be carefully planned, executed, and monitored. When circumstances dictate hasty change, however, your security could be at risk.

How to Protect Against Security Issues While Working Remotely

When it comes to mitigating or resolving the security issues of remote work, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. The exact cybersecurity measures your business needs will vary based on your organization’s size, operations, assets, and many other factors.

With that said, there are several best practices that can aid in improving remote cybersecurity for many different companies. Soffid is the solution to access information as your were in the office. Have a look to the following interesting video were our CTO, Gabriel Buades, tell us about how Soffid can secure your company data while teleworking.

Compliance. The state of security

Compliance. The state of security

A compliance audit is a comprehensive review and evaluation of a business or organization’s compliance with a voluntary compliance framework (e.g., SOC 2) or a regulatory requirement (e.g., GDPR). The scope of a compliance audit depends on which framework/regulation the auditor is evaluating against and, for some frameworks, what type of information the organization stores and how they utilize it.

Many companies still do not appreciate the interconnection of security and compliance. Both are often considered cost centers, and that paints a scowl on the face of many Chief Financial Officers. However, there is a different way of looking at compliance (or its negative counterpart, non-compliance).

We can divide compliance into the categories of obvious and not-so-obvious costs.

The obvious costs are easy to understand:

  • Track – Keeping a close watch on the requirements to maintain compliance
  • Mitigate – Correcting any deficiencies
  • Fines – Monetary penalties for compliance failure

Some of the hidden costs include:

  • Additional internal audits – To verify that everything is in order as well as the costs of reworking
  • Business disruption – Due to a regulator lockdown of a business unit or the entire organization,
  • Productivity loss – The time employees need to focus on remediation
  • Brand loss – Due to bad media coverage, and this leads to customer erosion

These costs ensure that your organization is equipped with the correct resources that are required to maintain and confirm there are no compliance slips. The biggest hidden cost, though, is the loss that is not accounted for due to non-standardized operating procedures and a lack of standardized control.

In information technology, this is known as secure configuration management.  An organization may be operating at lower efficiency without being noticed until regulatory compliance audits unravel the cracks in the IT ecosystem. This is the “close to broken” setting mentioned earlier.

Fortunately, the journey to compliance need not be a burdensome task. For example, in the banking industry, digital checking mechanisms enable institutions to track all the risks and ensure compliance by applying the appropriate controls. Comprehensive dashboards are used to ensure that banks can effectively monitor and mitigate compliance issues before they cross into non-compliant territory.

To reduce business risk by ensuring systems are properly configured or hardened to meet with your internal regulatory and legislative compliance standards, Secure Configuration Management is a must.

A secure configuration management tool combines network monitoring and Endpoint Protection methodology to compare monitored systems against an approved configuration baseline or a golden image. Deviation from this baseline, known as test failures, can usually be corrected with little or no human intervention. Secure configuration management is truly a need-to-have based solution.

Secure configuration management offers benefits to organizations, not only from the cost-avoidance standpoint of non-compliance but also from increased organizational efficiency and agility.

Attacks
It is important to note that while many vulnerabilities are “common,” there is a more critical aspect of maintaining compliance to protect your organization. The largest segments of attack types are targeted. This type of attack means your organization is singled out, and the attacker has a specific interest in your business or your intellectual property.

A targeted attack takes time and planning, sometimes months, to lay the groundwork and prepare. Attackers still use commodity techniques to probe the systems in your organization, looking for the best path to exploit, but their methods are specifically tailored to your infrastructure, your processes and your personnel. The main reason that targeted attacks are effective is because organizations struggle to follow basic security practices and properly institute measurable security policies.

Could you imagine how much less risk your organization would have if you could eliminate 99.99% of attacks?

How Soffid Can Help
Soffid makes compliance to security standard easier with the broadest set of compliance and security policies that accelerate securing your infrastructure and knowing where the weak points are. We update these policies as standards change and allow you to customize the test and assessment results to better meet your individual needs, as you get a giant head-start on your security policy and framework as well as the flexibility to make it your own.

Sources:
(1) Security Boulevard
(2) Forbes