How can large organisations stem the onslaught of cyber-attacks?

By Rich Turner, SVP EMEA, CyberArk

The past year has been a matter of keeping their heads above the quicksand for many businesses, especially in especially hard-hit sectors like retail and travel. The pandemic, political polarity, and the need to rapidly pivot to digital has challenged businesses like never before, forced them to shift their offerings and offered them very little time to stabilise in between lockdowns.

Can large organisations stem cyber-attacks?

It’s been no different for security teams at large organisations. A relentless onslaught of cyber-attacks has targeted them with a high level of success. Over 70% of all data breaches last year involved victims that were large organisations according to Verizon, with most being perpetrated by external actors – individuals without authorised access to that company’s network.

Cash is far from the only reward waiting on the other side of those high corporate walls. Great reams of valuable data are stored deep in sensitive areas of protected networks, making an attractive target for cyber-criminals to compromise and monetise.

With attacks mounting, how can corporate firms protect their business-critical data and assets from interference or theft?

• AI-powered automation to configure your cloud

There’s already plenty of conversation about whether cloud will reach its peak this year. It’s easy to see why when 92% of organisations’ IT environments are to some extent already in the cloud, according to an IDG report.

But all change, good or bad, brings new dynamics and new sets of diverse challenges with them. Cloud is no exception.

An increased attack surface is one of the implications of the complex nature of cloud. When traditional network perimeters are removed, the question of accountability must be asked. Whose responsibility is it to secure data hosted in the cloud? Is it the cloud provider’s? Or the customer’s?

Misconfiguration of account privileges is one of the most common consequences of this misunderstanding, and by extension, one of the leading causes of data breaches. When default credentials aren’t reviewed, excessive permissions can allow standard users unnecessary access to sensitive data.

AI-powered automated tools that review user permissions and privileges can be of great use to IT teams trying to overcome this problem. They provide both a quick and effective way of discovering accounts with excessive privileges and removing any superfluous permissions for specific users.

• Manage privileged third-party accounts

Research we carried out last year discovered that 25% of British businesses use over 100 third-party vendors. Whether consulting services or supply-chain managers, outsourcing internal functions has become commonplace.

Many of these third-party services require access to internal resources and data to fulfil their obligations. Our research found that 90% of businesses allow third parties to access critical internal resources – sensitive assets that if disrupted or stolen would cause significant harm to the organisation.

This presents a problem for IT teams, because responsibility for security is then passed to your third-party partner. You may trust your own security measures, policies and protocols, but can you trust theirs?

In fact, early last year flexible office space firm Regus suffered a breach due to this exact situation, with detailed employee performance information being leaked via a third party vendor. Regus had hired a vendor to audit its staff. The vendor’s security measures were weak, and the data breach was discovered in an investigation by the Telegraph. The impact an event like this has on reputation, as well as a company’s finances, is deep.

This example is a warning to any business using third-party vendors. The privileged accounts of all external operators must be constantly managed and monitored. They must be secure, structured, and multi-levelled, granting third parties enough access to carry out their jobs without putting the firm at risk of a punishing data breach.

Advanced Security-as-a-Service packages are well worth consideration for businesses hoping to ease the burden of monitoring and management on their IT team.

• Educate employees on the importance of security policies

The most evident challenge of 2020 was the transition into home offices from the traditional corporate workplace. IT teams were thrown into a maelstrom of consumer devices being used to connect to corporate assets and data. Whether via an employee’s Wi-Fi router or their personal laptop being used for work, the huge number of new devices introduced posed varying security risks.

This challenge is only going to continue into 2021. With the UK still under lockdown, a year in which we all work from home to a greater or lesser is easy to envisage. The security threats will have to be managed.

The approach many businesses take to this challenge adds to the problem. Far too many businesses are over reliant on security policies to keep threat actors out of their networks. These are almost never enough by themselves. In fact, our December research found over 50% of UK employees ignore corporate security policies. More must be done.

A lack of user-friendly processes is a common reason security policies aren’t followed. Businesses may recognise the importance of security, but the processes implemented can be too difficult for employees to use, creating friction in the user experience. In the end, people find shortcuts in the pursuit of efficiency and ease of use.

A balance must be struck to address this problem. Employees must first be educated on the importance of adhering to security policies, but in turn IT teams must adopt tools and processes that help minimise disruption to the wider business.

Increasing use of third parties, continued remote working, and a full transition to cloud will pose many challenges to corporate firms over the next year. Sensitive assets, above all, must be kept both secret and safe. Following these three tips will ensure you’ll be well on your way to securing your business in 2021.

Rich Turner has led privileged access management leader CyberArk’s EMEA programme for over three years. Prior to this position, he led the EMEA programmes at FireEye, Proofpoint, and RSA.

See more stories here.