Cyber Defense eMagazine December Edition for 2021

The case for isolation
Supply chains are evolving to be as much about the efficient exchange of information as they are about
the flow of goods and services. But where there is information sharing, cybersecurity professionals are
rightly uneasy. Menlo Labs has seen a steady rise in ‘credential phishing’ attacks by creating fake login
pages or forms to steal users’ credentials for commonly used services, including email and document
exchanges with supply chain partners.
Attackers can use credential phishing to breach an organisation’s smaller supply chain partner (whose
controls may be easier to bypass) then use an exchange of information, containing malware, as an easy
way to laterally move and infect the larger enterprise. If this company is consciously or unconsciously
allowing smaller partners to store sensitive data, attackers don’t even need to move laterally – the data
is already freely available on the smaller partner’s network.
We can all fall victim to a seemingly normal website or email. So now businesses are exploring options
that isolate employees’ devices. Rather than detecting threats and blocking employees from accessing
potentially malicious web content, this approach simply isolates all endpoints from browser-based traffic.
If you take the example of a large, global manufacturer with many employees engaged in digital research
and communications, they were trying to manage large volumes of phishing attacks and web malware.
This meant infected devices required costly, time-consuming reimaging. While anti-phishing training for
employees had some impact in reducing attacks, many employees continued to click on infected links
leading to credential theft and malware infection.
Isolation has changed this as all the unknown executable code from the Internet that employees
previously came into contact with – including any websites visited – are now executed in a remote cloud
container. Whether browsing online, reading emails or downloading documents, it is impossible for
malware to infect users’ devices or the network. Plus, there is no impact on user accessibility or
performance.
To reduce risk but maintain agility, fast-moving organisations in the manufacturing, logistics, retail and
other industries are deploying solutions to prevent malicious code from ever reaching the network
perimeter – mobilising isolation-powered cloud security to shut the door on malware from within any
supply chain communications.
Isolation, however, will not protect an entire supply chain system from the growing number and range of
attacks. Cybersecurity for these critical networks needs security and IT specialists to have conversations
with a wider range of functions, such as sourcing, vendor and partner management and logistics, in a
coordinated effort to reduce risks.
Cyber Defense eMagazine – December 2021 Edition 85
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