Cyber Defense eMagazine December Edition for 2021

In reality, there’s no one ‘silver bullet’ for cyber defense. Instead, a mature posture will combine a variety
of security methodologies and technologies for data discovery, classification, access management,
protection, and more. Further, it must function in a manner that accommodates necessary business
operations. Finding the right balance between security and operability is one of the greatest challenges
security professionals face, but it’s absolutely essential for a successful cybersecurity strategy.”
Tyler Farrar, CISO, Exabeam
“National Cyber Security Awareness Month 2021 is a time to reflect on the major technological and
lifestyle shifts brought on by the pandemic and their security implications. Remote work unexpectedly
became the norm in 2020, and as we close out 2021, the hybrid work model may be here to stay for
decades to come. It’s clear that it's working.
These changing approaches to work have caused security leaders and their teams to balance what’s
necessary to keep sensitive company data and assets safe and secure in organizational landscapes that
no longer have a security perimeter. People are everywhere now. Meanwhile, adversaries are growing
more sophisticated by the hour. Critical infrastructure organizations like Colonial Pipeline, agriculture
organizations like New Cooperative and tech firms like Kaseya and Olympus being targeted by
cybercriminal groups are hitting the headlines on a near-weekly basis. How can security teams keep up
with the barrage of attacks and network perimeter shifts?
Rather than retreating back to legacy methods and previous strategies, companies must #BeCyberSmart
and tackle modern threats head on. It’s critical to highlight that compromised credentials are the reason
for 61% of breaches today. To remediate incidents involving user credentials and respond to adversaries,
organizations must consider an approach that is closely aligned with monitoring user behavior to get the
necessary context needed to restore trust, and react in real time, to protect employee accounts. This
should include the ability to understand what normal looks like in your network, so when anything
abnormal occurs, you can immediately detect it and prevent it from causing harm or damage to your
organization.
Employees must also play a role. Security teams that shake up their password protocols such as never
using the same password twice, using password vaults and enabling multi-factor / adaptive authentication
are winning against the adversaries. A combination of behavioral analytics and smart password practices
can help employees, and their employers, stop credential-based attacks and adversarial lateral
movement. Use this month to be sure you have the right threat detection, investigation and response
(TDIR) technologies in place for yourself and your security teams."
Cyber Defense eMagazine – December 2021 Edition 44
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