The recent gaming industry breach has once again underscored the urgent need to never let your guard down when it comes to cybersecurity. As organizations evaluate their own security postures in the wake of this incident, it’s crucial to recognize common challenges and implement best practices that can effectively safeguard against evolving threats. In this blog post, we’ll delve into four key strategies that can significantly bolster your cybersecurity defenses in light of this latest breach.
Best Practices For Protecting Your Complex Network
1. Visibility and Segmentation: Seeing the Unseen
Achieving complete and deep network visibility is the foundation of any successful cybersecurity strategy, especially for enterprises dealing with hybrid network environments and complex infrastructures. This visibility goes beyond merely identifying devices and systems; it extends to understanding how they interact and connect.
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Reducing the Attack Surface: One primary goal of visibility is to reduce the attack surface. This involves identifying unnecessary or unauthorized access points or services and questioning their necessity. By methodically reviewing and recertifying access rules, organizations make it harder for attackers to find vulnerable entry points.
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Segmentation Control: Proper governance of network segmentation ensures that only authorized users and devices have access to specific segments. This practice limits what an attacker can reach even if they manage to breach one segment. It’s akin to locking doors within a building to minimize the intruder’s movement.
2. Prioritization Based on Vulnerabilities: Assessing Accessibility
When it comes to prioritizing vulnerabilities, it’s not just about their severity but also their accessibility. Vulnerability and network accessibility are intimately linked and play a vital role in determining the exploitability of a security flaw.
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Exposure-based Prioritization: Prioritizing vulnerabilities based on their potential impact on your network, considering their exposure, is essential. For instance, a critical vulnerability on a server that is well-segmented and practically inaccessible from external or internal sources poses a lower risk. In contrast, a medium-severity vulnerability on a poorly segmented server might be more exploitable due to its accessibility.
3. Compensating Controls: Safeguarding Unpatched Systems
Compensating controls are security measures put in place to mitigate the risk associated with unpatched systems that have known vulnerabilities. These controls can take various forms, but in the context of network security, they often involve the implementation of network security rules.
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Compensating controls are like a safety net for vulnerabilities that cannot be patched immediately. For instance, if a critical security patch is not available for a vulnerable system, network security rules can be crafted to limit access to that system, reducing the risk of exploitation.
4. Continuous Compliance: Keeping Segmentation Intact
Cybersecurity isn’t a one-and-done task; it’s an ongoing process. Continuous compliance ensures that your network segmentation remains intact and effective, even as changes occur regularly.
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Adapting to Change: Networks are dynamic, and changes are constant. New access requests, system updates, and evolving business needs require vigilance to ensure that no access introduced into the network violates the organizational segmentation policy.
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Reducing Access “Baggage”: Regularly recertifying previously granted access helps eliminate open doors that are no longer needed within the network. This continual reduction in unnecessary access points significantly reduces the likelihood of a breach over time.
Don’t Roll the Dice on Critical Systems
Every new breach serves as a stark reminder of the ever-present cybersecurity threats that organizations like yours face. To strengthen your security posture, it’s imperative to prioritize visibility, assess vulnerabilities based on accessibility, implement compensating controls, and maintain continuous compliance.
These strategies not only help protect your critical systems but also position your organization to stay ahead of evolving threats in an ever-changing digital landscape.
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