Everyone is always looking for the next big thing but how do you know when the time’s up for the current tools?
Over recent years, we have faced increasing incidents of cyber-attacks and unprecedented technologies being used to cause data breaches.
It’ll only get worse unless organizations adapt their cybersecurity strategies to the principles and technologies of the current transformation in the state of enterprise cybersecurity.
Here, we discuss three of these big principles and highlight some of the technologies driving the trend.
Zero-Trust
Basically, this is a principle that strips security authentication systems of the assumption of trust when handling access requests.
As against traditional security models, the zero-trust framework aims to ascertain the identity of a user and their legitimacy to be granted the required access.
This moves away from dependence on hardware devices and knowledge-based authentication models, all of which may be easily breached/hijacked. By not trusting anything outside the network perimeter until the user’s identity is firmly established, organizations can greatly reduce incidents of data breaches.
Least Privilege
One of the principles promoted in the zero-trust model is least privilege cybersecurity. The principle means that users do not have access to network resources beyond what’s necessary for fulfilling a (legitimate task).
The ultimate aim is to manage and reduce the impact of data breaches.
Essentially, if even the CEO cannot have access to more network resources than they require to fulfill an assignment, breaching the system through that endpoint limits the amount of damage that a cyber-attacker can wreak.
Least privilege appears to be a cross between smart permission management and advanced network segmentation that reduces a cyber-attack surface.
Edge Security and User Responsibility
This is the age of the distributed workspace, which is a welcome development. However, eliminating the physical boundaries of office networks must require a transformation in organizations’ approach to cybersecurity.
Apparently, the edge has attained the same level of importance as the core. The cybersecurity technologies of the future would be those that place greater importance upon securing the edge from malicious infiltration.
The fast-rising adoption of IoT makes this all the more important.
Companies need to focus on securing endpoints, wherever they exist. As expected, this means individual users (employees) have a greater responsibility in securing office data.
Therefore, new cybersecurity technologies must focus on empowering employees as the first line of defense, in order to resist attacks.
Now, to the specific technologies that implement these principles:
Software-Defined Perimeter
An SDP is used to segment network resources and limit access to approved users.
SDP solutions use a zero-trust strategy and a least privilege model by assuming that everything outside the defined perimeter is untrusted.
Once connected to the network, a user is only granted access for carrying out a particular task as approved. Therefore, the larger network remains secure even if a data breach occurs.
Risk-Based Authentication
Traditional authentication systems are too rigid and that is a disadvantage. If everyone (regardless of the level of privilege) is only required to supply a password to access a system, it is only a matter of time before highly privileged accounts are breached.
RBA prevents this by applying varying authentication requirements according to the sensitivity of the data to be accessed as well as the login context.
Therefore, without using 2-factor authentication, you can still deliver scalable and easy-to-use login authentication.
Secure Access Service Edge
SASE consolidates network connectivity and security functions into cloud-delivered solutions.
With the rising adoption of remote work and distributed endpoints, SASE solutions govern access to network resources in a scalable way, ensuring security compliance across contexts.
Gartner predicted last year that “By 2024, at least 40% of enterprises will have explicit strategies to adopt SASE.”
Cloud Access Security Broker
CASBs are used to integrate multiple categories of security policies and enforce them as users try to access system cloud resources. A CASB operates between the users and the cloud service providers to enforce security compliance.
Some of the security policies may include authorization, malware detection and prevention, incident response, remote access, business continuity, etc.
Next-Generation Firewall
Traditional firewalls use stateful packet filtering; however, NGFWs go beyond by implementing security at the highest layer of the OSI model: the application layer.
NGFWs also include an Integrated Intrusion Prevention System, Deep Packet Inspection, threat intelligence, and other capabilities not possible with traditional firewalls.
Conclusion
Enterprise cybersecurity has relied upon traditional VPNs, firewalls, encryption, antivirus, and other similar technologies. However, they have failed to deliver the kinds of cyber resilience required as the world of work changes.
The next generation of cybersecurity will require that tools and technologies assume no trust but instead authenticate everything that tries to access a network.