In 2020, breaches were the digital pandemic. Cybercriminals were provided with the opportunity to disrupt and target the weak areas of organizations that were not prepared to work remotely securely.
It is certainly true to say that we are all glad to see the back of 2020. But not withstanding these difficult and challenging times, what does the cybersecurity landscape look like in 2021? Let us share some thoughts from a few of our key security vendor partners.
Opportunistic Ransomware Attacks Will Continue to Bite
Ransomware will remain the most prominent cyber threat to all organizations. It will continue to take advantage of remote access.
With the difficult and uncertain trading conditions worldwide organizations are asking themselves whether their business could survive a serious breach.
As we consolidate on the new normal of remote working companies will begin to tackle the technical debt left behind from their urgent switch to a new way of working. In some cases this will mean substantial architectural changes, which will leave them exposed. This will lead to acceleration towards the cloud and a greater adoption of intelligent, dynamic security architectures such as zero trust.
Marc Rogers – VP of Cybersecurity Strategy, OKTA
Renewed Investment in Security Intelligence and Incident Response Capabilities
The breach of SolarWinds comes with critical consequences, and it will be a primary focus of anyone with ‘security’ in their job title not only for the coming months but likely also through 2021.
Unfortunately, this type of ‘supply chain’ cyberattack, where advanced threat actors target third-party software and dependencies rather than organizations directly, offers a glimpse of what cyberattacks will look like in the future.
In 2021, successful security programs will have the intelligence necessary to know what their attack surface looks like and what it’s comprised of, including the suppliers, partners, and third-party vendors. Each of these could be a weak link that could result in a compromise.
CISOs that don’t have an advanced incident-response function with the necessary data and intelligence to understand attacks, know if they were breached, and investigate clues left on their networks by attackers, will be at an extreme disadvantage.
Lou Manousos, CEO at RiskIQ
Zero Trust and SASE Will Converge
SASE (Secure Access Secure Edge) architecture will be needed to truly support a holistic Zero Trust implementation, and these two requirements will be the cornerstone for any future workforce digital transformation, providing full visibility, control, and enablement for a secure cloud transformation. As remote working accelerates, and ZTNA (Zero Trust Network Access) sales grow exponentially as a result, networking teams that initially boosted their VPN spend to cover the rapid rise of home workers will see the benefits of massive ZTNA bandwidth and cost advantages. Zero Trust and SASE are inextricably linked.
Jason Clark, Chief of Strategy at Netskope
The Modern Secure Enterprise Demands New Collaboration Workflows
Modern Enterprise Security Architecture (MESA) framework defines the core requirements for securing a modern cloud business and how a combination of different tools, technologies and vendors must be assembled in new ways to provide a complete and effective solution. In addition, the framework lays out key transitions occurring in evolving solution categories, a continuous intelligence platform to integrate data, analytics, and visibility, and a closed loop model in which SOC and SIEM monitoring of production applications is linked to DevSecOps and application security.
For example, linking cross site vulnerabilities in an application to specific monitoring and alerting logic in the SIEM for that application requires new collaboration workflows and intelligence sharing across several previously siloed systems.
Greg Martin, VP & GM of Security Business Unit at Sumo Logic
Managed Services Support and Systems Integration
At activereach, we select complementary ‘best of breed’ vendor technologies for our portfolio which, when combined, provide the optimum defence posture for our clients.
We aim to provide enhanced security by reviewing our clients’ existing security maturity and setting a bespoke improvement plan that dovetails into their level of business risk and needs.
In 2020 we regularly heard comments such as; “It’s good enough”, “Do the minimum to keep me out of jail” and “We have already been hit so why should we spend the money?” We work with our clients to discover whether a breach could happen to them, what their level of risk is and how much their business could withstand in the event of a real attack.
If you would like to know more about how activereach and our partners can help you with your current cybersecurity challenges, we would welcome the opportunity to offer our recommendations. Please call us on 0845 625 9025 or contact us here
