Dear Executive Team, Cybersecurity doesn’t have to mean writing a blank check. The conventional wisdom screams for bloated Security Operations Centers (SOCs) brimming with overpriced analysts and tools. Let’s dismantle that myth. You can establish a lean, efficient SOC that works without funneling your budget into a black hole. Here’s how: Clarity over complexity Most SOCs fail because they aim for shiny instead of functional. You don’t need 15 overlapping tools creating more noise than signals. Invest in a centralized platform that integrates well with SIEM or XDR, not 12-point solutions that argue with each other. Automate or Die Trying Manual analysis is for dinosaurs. Automate repetitive tasks like log analysis and alert triage. Machine learning-based detection tools can do in seconds what a roomful of analysts might miss in hours. Plus, automation doesn’t call in sick. Outsource what you can’t scale No, you don’t need a 24/7 on-site team. Leverage Managed Detection and Response (MDR) services for after-hours coverage. They’re cheaper, faster, and often better equipped than a junior analyst chugging coffee on a graveyard shift. Train your people, not just hire new ones Throwing bodies at problems is a lazy, expensive habit. Upskill your existing IT team instead of hiring a small army. Certifications like CISSP or CEH aren’t just resume fluff they teach practical skills that translate into better security outcomes. Measure impact, not activity Stop fixating on how many tickets your SOC closes or how many alerts they chase. Focus on reducing Mean Time to Detect (MTTD) and Mean Time to Respond (MTTR). Efficiency beats busyness every time. Adopt a “Threat Hunting First” Mindset Reactive SOCs drown in alerts. Proactive threat hunting cuts through the noise by identifying vulnerabilities and anomalies before they explode into breaches. Equip your team with the mindset and tools to hunt, not just react. Cyber hygiene is non-negotiable The best SOC in the world won’t save you if your basic defenses patching, endpoint protection, and strong passwords are a joke. Get the fundamentals right, and you’ll have fewer fires to fight in the first place. Final Word A SOC isn’t a trophy or a trend to follow. It’s a tool to protect your organization without bleeding your resources dry. Resist the impulse to overspend on status symbols. Instead, prioritize efficiency, automation, and a proactive security culture. Because a SOC that costs millions but doesn’t work isn’t just wasteful it’s negligent. Let’s build smarter. Best regards, iShield 360 Cybersecurity + IFIS Team
The Rising Tide of Internet Fraud in Uganda: A Call for Vigilance and Action
In the digital age, the Internet has become an essential part of daily life, offering numerous opportunities for economic growth, communication, and innovation. However, it has also provided fertile ground for fraudulent activities. In Uganda, internet fraud has been on the rise, posing significant threats to individuals, businesses, and the economy. We explore the current state of internet fraud in Uganda, its impact, and the steps that can be taken to mitigate this growing menace. Uganda, like many other developing nations, has seen a rapid increase in internet usage over the past decade. With more people and businesses going online, the potential for internet-related crimes has surged. Common types of internet fraud in Uganda include phishing, identity theft, online scams, and cyberbullying. Phishing: Fraudsters often use phishing schemes to trick individuals into providing sensitive information such as bank details, passwords, or personal identification numbers. These schemes typically involve fake emails or websites that appear legitimate. Identity Theft: This occurs when someone illegally obtains and uses another person’s personal information, usually for financial gain. In Uganda, cases of identity theft have been reported where criminals use stolen identities to access financial services or commit other crimes. Online Scams: These range from fake online shopping sites to fraudulent investment schemes. Victims are often lured by promises of high returns or low-cost products, only to lose their money to the scammers. Cyberbullying: Although not directly related to financial fraud, cyberbullying has significant social and psychological impacts. It often involves harassment, threats, or spreading false information online, targeting individuals, especially young people. The Impact of Internet Fraud The consequences of internet fraud in Uganda are far-reaching. For individuals, the loss of money, personal information, and trust can be devastating. For businesses, particularly small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the financial losses and damage to reputation can be crippling. On a broader scale, the economy suffers as investor confidence declines, and resources are diverted to combating fraud instead of fostering growth. Economic Losses: Internet fraud leads to direct financial losses for victims and increased costs for businesses in terms of security measures and fraud prevention. Reputational Damage: Businesses that fall victim to fraud may suffer reputational damage, leading to a loss of customers and revenue. Psychological Impact: Victims of internet fraud often experience stress, anxiety, and a sense of violation, affecting their mental health and well-being. Reduced Trust in Digital Platforms: Widespread fraud can lead to a general mistrust of online platforms, slowing the adoption of digital services and hindering technological advancement. Combating Internet Fraud in Uganda Addressing the issue of internet fraud requires a multi-faceted approach involving government, businesses, and individuals. Strengthening Legislation and Enforcement: The government should enact robust cybercrime laws and ensure effective enforcement. This includes training law enforcement agencies to handle cybercrime cases and improving the judicial process for prosecuting offenders. Public Awareness Campaigns: Educating the public about the risks of internet fraud and how to protect themselves is crucial. Regular awareness campaigns can help individuals recognize and avoid potential scams. Business Best Practices: Businesses must implement strong cybersecurity measures, including regular system updates, employee training, and secure payment gateways. They should also establish clear protocols for responding to fraud incidents. Collaboration and Information Sharing: Stakeholders, including government agencies, financial institutions, and telecom companies, should collaborate and share information to detect and prevent fraud more effectively. Victim Support Services: Providing support services for victims of internet fraud, such as counseling and legal assistance, can help them recover from the ordeal and reduce the overall impact of the crime. Internet fraud is a growing problem in Uganda, threatening the safety and security of individuals and businesses alike. By understanding the nature of these fraudulent activities and taking proactive measures to combat them, Uganda can protect its digital landscape and ensure that the benefits of the internet are fully realized. It is a collective responsibility, requiring vigilance, education, and robust legal frameworks to create a safer online environment for all.
Write an effective investigation report
Who did what, where, when, and how? An investigation must provide answers to each of these questions concerning the issues at hand. Everyone wants to know what the issue is. Who are the key suspects? What did they do, where and when did they do it, and how did they manage to pull it off? Answers to these questions help to affix blame, understand what went wrong, and find solutions to prevent the re-occurrence of the same in the future. However, good an investigator you may be, the quality of your work is reflected in the investigation report. What makes a good investigation report? Can you write an investigation report that has the key answers required? Do you know when to use an annexure, appendix, screenshot, attachment, or exhibit? Do you know how to conduct interviews with suspects and witnesses? Can you write an interview script? Do you know the rules of covert recording of a witness or suspect interview? Do you know what it means by admissible evidence and how to obtain it and include it in your report? After the occurrence of fraud, a thorough investigation is often needed to establish the cause and prevent future occurrences. Many people – auditors, investigators, and internal staff can collect evidence. However, analyzing such evidence and writing a short but clear report is not easy. Investigation reports provide a detailed account of the circumstances surrounding an incident and the findings from the investigation. They serve as a record of what happened and can be used as evidence in legal proceedings. Knowing how to write an investigation report is a valuable skill that can help individuals and organizations properly document incidents, analyze the data, and make informed decisions. Creating a well-structured, clear, and precise report can make or kill your case. A good report ensures that all relevant details are properly documented, allows for a clear understanding of the events by a third party, and eventually assists in making informed decisions based on your findings. Before writing a report, consider who will be reading your report. Knowing your audience will guide the tone, language, and level of detail you include in your report. Ensure that the report is concise. The investigator is primarily responsible for conducting the investigation, gathering and analyzing data, identifying the root cause, and making recommendations. The investigator then must present the findings in an impartial, concise, and clear manner, ensuring the report is unbiased and factual. These findings help organizations understand what went wrong and implement corrective actions to prevent similar incidents in the future. The benefits of a good Investigation Report include; Provides a concrete record of the incident, including the investigation’s findings supported by evidence. A thorough analysis of an incident outlining how it was conducted, the suspects or subjects that were involved, and the extent of their involvement in terms of who did what (commission) or who did not do what (omission) leading to the success of the fraud. A well-structured report is valuable evidence in legal proceedings if the matter goes to court. An investigator presumes that in fraud investigations, matters will end up in court. For that reason, care must be taken in planning the investigation, collecting and analyzing evidence, and writing the report. The findings from an investigation report can help in coming up with new safety measures or internal control improvements. It is one of the reasons you must conduct an investigation, even if small amounts of money are suspected to have been involved. Significant steps that play a vital role in ensuring the accuracy of your report. Start by gathering relevant information about the incident. This could include documents, physical evidence, or other information to aid your investigation. Don’t overlook minor details or seemingly insignificant information. Even the smallest detail can contribute to the overall understanding of the incident. Every detail will prove to be relevant information related to the incident and will also be useful in future investigations. Assess the credibility and reliability of the interviewee, particularly if they are a witness or an alleged party. Also, document any inconsistencies in their statements or behaviour that could affect the validity of their testimony. These details are crucial in determining the accuracy and weight of the information provided by the interviewee. Interview all witnesses and involved parties to get their accounts of the incident. Their testimonies can provide valuable insights that will help you understand the incident better. All physical evidence gathered during the investigation is documented. This information might include photos, videos, documents, audio recordings, or physical objects. Each piece of evidence should be described in detail, explaining what it is and its relevance to the investigation. Remember, your report will only be as good as the evidence you gather Make sense of your findings by analyzing all the evidence and information gathered during the investigation. You will need to piece together the facts and identify any patterns or connections that may exist between them. One of the mistakes amateur investigators make is making conclusions. Some investigators make a mistake to state their conclusion once all the evidence is analyzed. This is not recommended. As an investigator, your work is to provide the facts. Leave the conclusions to the courts of law. For the report to be professional, credible, and effective in conveying the necessary information, investigators must avoid failing to consider the audience and their expectations. Overly technical language without providing explanations or definitions, allowing personal opinions or emotions to influence the findings, and not properly referencing the evidence should be avoided as well. To know more about report writing, register for our upcoming 2-day events. The training is ideal for all people involved in disciplinary hearings, human resource, audits, legal, and investigations. Come and learn what great looks like so that you set a high standard of effective investigations that solve cases. Say no more to begging a suspect to resign for lack of proper evidence. To register, contact Deborah Kigozi at 0784270586/ 0708182121 or email
Have you established an Attack Surface Management (ASM) for your organization?
According to Gartner’s report on ‘Innovation Insight for Attack Surface Management (ASM)’, which covers the growing need faced by security teams to manage an expanding attack surface. Gartner addresses the ‘Top Trends in Cybersecurity 2022’ where it reports that security and risk management leaders ‘anticipate the continuous expansion of the enterprise attack surface, and increase investment in processes and tools…’ Gartner advises that going forward, organizations; Rethink their security technology stack to address sophisticated new threats. Push cybersecurity decision making out to the business units to improve their security posture. Evolve and reframe the security practice to better manage cyber risk. Given the evolving nature of technology adoption, attack surfaces for business enterprises are expanding. Technology risks associated with the use of IoT, open-source code, cloud applications, any internet-facing systems, complex digital supply chains, social media and more have led to the exposure of organizations’ surfaces. The growth of containerization, SaaS applications and the hybrid workforce have all led to an expansion, and the development of new attack surfaces to identify and protect. Enterprises are bound to look beyond traditional approaches to security monitoring, detection and response to manage a wider set of security exposures. What Is ASM? Attack Surface Management (ASM) is the continuous discovery, inventory, classification, prioritization, and monitoring of an organization’s attack surface from an external attacker’s perspective. This emerging cybersecurity technology helps organizations to identify internet and attacker-exposed IT assets as well as to monitor them for unexpected changes and vulnerabilities (i.e., blind spots, misconfigurations, process failures) that increase the risk of attacks. From the external attacker’s perspective, it’s easy for security teams to prioritize those assets for remediation based on their level of attack ability. The increasing ransomware and supply chain attacks along with recommendations by analysts like Gartner have made ASM one of the top cybersecurity priorities for CISOs and security teams in recent times. Attack Surface Management (ASM) is also referred to as External Attack Surface Management (EASM). Another emerging technology is Cyber Asset Attack Surface Management (CAASM). It helps security teams solve persistent asset visibility and vulnerability issues. What Is an Attack Surface? The attack surface is referred to as all organizations’ internet-accessible hardware, software, SaaS, and cloud assets that an adversary could discover, attack, and use to breach a company. Why should you consider having ASM in Your Company’s cybersecurity program? Given the volatile landscape and the evolution of both threat types and threat vectors. The organization needs threat intelligence insights to stay ahead of attackers and fortify your critical assets more than ever. The following are some of the great benefits why ASM should be part of your cybersecurity program; Find Unknowns & Prioritize Top Targets. With an ever-changing attack surface, it’s impractical to keep track of all targets. External ASM allows the organization’s security team to focus on assets that can be weaponized by attackers, reducing operational noise Harden and Reduce Your Attack Surface. Knowing what’s exposed to threats also enables the security team to secure the top assets. Hence, successfully hardening and reducing the attack surface in line with the company’s security best practices. Strengthen Your Cybersecurity Posture. With ASM continuously monitoring the attack surface for new changes in technology and vulnerabilities. The security team and company will get better at predicting and preventing cyber threats. Conclusion The tangible benefits of ASM to organizations help security leaders with important insights, prioritization and reduction in team workload. CAASM and ASA tools help to align security, IT and GRC teams. This is so by providing a unified view of assets, cyber-risk and business applications. This creates better organizational alignment and focuses on delivering key cyber objectives. Another critical benefit is the concept of actionable intelligence. This is where automation is critical. Security leaders need CAASM & ASA tools to solve problems, not just highlight them, visibility cannot be enough. To be continued…
Is conducting IT Audit necessary when you have adequate security controls in place?
The increasing number and sophisticated nature of cyber-crimes prevailing in industries worldwide. As governing bodies are stepping up to help organizations mitigate the prevailing attack techniques, it is to this day evident that no particular enterprise can be 100% immune to the stretching threat landscape. That said, businesses should be proactive in addressing potential threats and possible attacks and have an effective cybersecurity strategy in place. An IT security audit can be helpful in such scenarios. It is for the same reason organizations should conduct audit assessments to determine whether their cybersecurity posture is up to scratch or whether the organization is meeting the requirements of security standards. Different assurance actions should be taken to assess gap analysis, risk assessment, and various IT tests, which are fundamentally important for continual security improvement and assurance for the organization. What is an IT Security Audit? IT Security Audit is an evaluation process that assesses an organization’s established security practices. It is a process that determines the effectiveness of the defence systems implemented against any threats to information systems and company assets. The IT Security Audit is a combination of vulnerability scans on business information systems, applications and processes, penetration testing, network assessments, and much more that help determines vulnerabilities and or entry points in the IT systems. The audit covers the administrative processes, physical security (hardware), software application, and network assessment. This way, the evaluation process can help a company/organization gain an understanding of its current security posture. Case scenario: Even organizations that are low on the maturity scale have often implemented key controls that are necessary as the first line of defence. However, these organizations may not have planned their systems implementation and configurations with comprehensive identification and installation of cyber defence according to a formal and recognized framework. For example, organizations may implement a firewall, IDS/IPS systems, and antivirus software, and might have conducted some user security awareness sessions about common cyber-attack techniques and making proper backups. Each of these practices, and related controls, serve an important purpose to protect information assets at any organization. However, the same organization may not have placed adequate attention to assuring that adequate firewall rules are implemented and updated regularly, antivirus software may not be installed on all workstations or may not contain the latest malicious signatures (i.e., unique and identifiable malicious code), users connecting with unmanaged devices on corporate company networks or end-users who are on leave may have missed security awareness training. Why your organization needs regular Security Audits? An Information Security Audit is an evaluation process that helps organizations identify vulnerabilities and security risks in their IT Ecosystem. Risk exposure does not just impact the security of systems and Infrastructure but also affects the overall business operations. Information Security is not just about IT security, but also Information/Data security. Below are the reasons why we recommend regular Information Security audits for every organization to stay secure and compliant. 1. Gain independent assurance on the Security Posture of information systems at the organization. Through conducting audits, organizations gain clarity of their current security posture. Reports from the assessment will indicate whether or not the organization’s information systems security is effective against threats. The organization gains a better understanding of their internal and external IT practices and system. The report details a list of findings, highlighting areas of high risk, and recommended solutions on how to fix them. The report will further guide businesses to improve their security policies, procedures, controls, and practices. 2. Protect IT Systems & Infrastructure against Attacks The assessment helps organizations identify weaknesses in systems and key processes and discover any potential entry points and security flaws that attackers may compromise to gain access to critical organizational systems and networks. The audit exercise helps keep a regular check on the effectiveness of security measures that in turn keep valuable data safe. 3. Audit Verifies Compliance Regulatory and governing bodies from around the world have established strong security measures, requirements, and standards for businesses to adhere to, for protection against prevailing cybersecurity threats. Organizations are expected to ensure compliance with various standards and provide evidence for the same. To this end, Information Security Audit will help organizations stay compliant. Conducting regular audits will help the organization determine whether or not they have adequate measures implemented to achieve compliance against various security standards and certifications. The audit gives the organization a direction towards implementing measures and achieving compliance. The Information Security Audit verifies whether the organization is compliant with standards and industry best practices set by the top regulatory bodies globally. 4. Evaluates the Security of Data Flow Through Information Security Audit, organizations gain insight into the security of their critical and sensitive data both in transit and at rest. Audit keeps a check on the security of systems and networks but also ensures the security of business-critical data. Data is today an essential asset of any organization. Given the value that it holds, securing data is today every organization’s top priority. So, an audit assessment determines the effectiveness and security of the data flow throughout the organization. Furthermore, the findings in the report help organizations lay the groundwork for any improvement or enforcement of security in the network. This helps establish strong security measures against attacks and data breaches. Conclusion. To this end, even when there are robust controls in place, the organization must regularly conduct (independent) audits to ensure these processes are well-designed, are executing properly, and are meeting senior management and business needs.
Do you control and monitor what applications run on your corporate network?
Application monitoring just like overall network monitoring is a vital IT function for corporate organizations. From employee productivity with the various applications to infrastructure maintenance, Application monitoring can help businesses to embark on business objectives, and save costs in all corners of their corporate structure. Application monitoring will let your organization know when the organization’s main line of business apps, or their related databases, email system, etc… are not performing properly. Proper app monitoring software will give you a visual dashboard to trend usage, performance, and growth. All these are extremely important for capacity planning, meeting SLAs, and identifying malicious applications on the corporate network to rectify threats before they cause outages. Issue Analysis The Application Monitoring field is large, and there are even a couple of mature, well used open-source options, such as Nagios and Hyperic which provide powerful monitoring solutions for all sizes of business. In addition to these open-source options, there are several commercial options available as well. SolarWinds has a powerful APM module for their Orion integrated management system, which can monitor your applications without an agent installation. There are also options from ManageEngine, which work in a similar fashion to the SolarWinds product line. An organization’s top priority should be to ensure that its applications are running at their peak efficiency – with minimal downtime. It is for this reason that APM (Application Performance Management) tools are essential in enhancing user experiences. There are a lot of application performance management tools on the market today. However, the primary goal is to find a comprehensive tool that is focused on enhancing the end-user experience. Why Application monitoring is vital to your organization? As companies grow, the activities and requirements of their staff inevitably become more complex. The set of applications needed within the network can expand rapidly. This can be exacerbated by staff preferences when an individual finds the standard tool in use in your environment does not offer the user experience they are used to from previous positions. It’s important to restrict users to only known and trusted applications managed and maintained by IT staff, and prevent installation and use of any other tools or solutions. A good rule of thumb is to operate by least privilege: only give users access to what they need for their work, and nothing more. By controlling and limiting what applications each user has access to, you can hinder even a successful attacker’s attempts at accessing your sensitive files. Plus, with central management software, not only can you instantly view the login attempts and block a specific user or device, but you can revise access controls to lock down your data and services. With the help of central Application monitoring tools you are able to; To observe app components – Components may include servers, databases, and message queues or catches. Anomaly detection – This can vary from simple threshold detection to advanced machine learning pattern recognition. This allows for the detection of malicious applications on the corporate networks and scrapping them off from use. To provide app dashboards and alerts – Dashboards give an overview, and alerts drive attention to specific application problems. Distributed tracing – Tracking how one event connects across multiple nodes to detect the origins of errors. Dependency & flow mapping – A visual representation of how requests travel between services.
User Access concerns to systems security: Why authentication process needs a keen eye?
In today’s complex environment, employees have access to corporate networks and are authenticated to corporate systems, as well as servers, and devices. It is dire if a malicious attacker gets the same access either through brute force or by taking advantage of the staff that lack awareness to gain the same level of access privileges, this escalates their ability to move laterally throughout the enterprise. It is for this reason that organizations enforce policies over strong user credentials, multiple methods for authentication, password management tools, and a strong cybersecurity program. Notably, organizations have to acknowledge identity governance, assess all possible risks around user authentication and access controls, put in place Identity governance solutions carry out Business Impact Analysis to understand key critical systems in the organization’s inventory, analyse and understand access privileges granted to employees, contractors, and partners. Why Authentication process needs a keen eye? One of the most important aspects of a system or network authentication is the focus on the user and human-to-computer interactions. This makes user authentication crucial to understand when creating or improving your corporate systems’ login procedure. Whether you’re looking to amp up your internal security, increase security over system access, or simply provide a better user experience for employees and individuals exploring your corporate systems and internet-facing applications, it’s important to know how user authentication fits into the equation. What is Authentication? Authentication is a security process that began long before the age of computing. Only in our current parlance, does it seem linked to our digital security. It is a security process that covers all of the human-to-computer interactions that require the user to register and log in to verify their identity to the web application. That is to say, authentication asks each user that tries to access the system or corporate network, “who are you?” and verifies the response of the user. When employees or users register accounts, they create unique IDs and keys that allow them to access their accounts later on. Generally, a username and password are used as the ID and key, but the credentials can include other forms of keys as well (see our section on types of user authentication). The authentication process provides users with repeat access to their accounts while attempting to block unauthenticated and malicious users from gaining access. Factors of Authentication Three factors can provide a form of authentication: What You Know Factors the user must know to log in are considered knowledge factors. This can be anything from a username, password, or PIN. The challenge with these factors is that they can be weak in terms of security because they can be shared or guessed. What You Have Anything that the user must have or possess to log in. One-time password tokens such as smart cards, ID cards, and physical tokens are all considered as what a user possesses. What You Are This is tailored to a person’s biological characteristics. Any biometric authentication process, such as fingerprint scanning and facial recognition, would fall into this category. Multi-factor Authentication: Combining factors of authentication greatly reduces the chance of failure in the authentication process. Two and three-factor authentication are catching on in many areas outside of internet services. In many cases, three are required in the form of having an access card, combined with an authorized fingerprint, and finally one must know a lock combination to gain access to their computing equipment. Multi-factor authentication will continue to become more common for security procedures of various internet services. Many prominent internet services have already implemented them. Facebook, Twitter, and Google services already support two-factor authentication. Conclusion To this end that you understand how authentication works and how users authenticate their identities into various corporate systems. Organizations need to ensure the following to make their login process more secure, user-friendly, or a combination of both; Encourage Stronger Passwords to Improve Security. Passwords alone aren’t the best authentication method because of the various vulnerabilities they bring due to insecure user-generated credentials. However, organizations should improve the existing password-based authentication system. It should implement a password policy to encourage users to create better passwords. Some of the hints to follow to create stronger passwords are; Longer passwords are more secure. Security experts suggest that you create passwords with a minimum of 8 characters. But we recommend that you create passwords closer to 12 characters in length. Passwords should have a mix of characters. Passwords with a random combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols are harder to crack. Users should avoid using formulas when generating passwords. The patterns and formulas make it easy for hackers to guess passwords and offer users a false sense of security.
Endpoint Security Risks: Organizations should Revise their Risk Management Strategies
While technology has driven the digital agenda and led to greater innovation, growth, and efficiency; it also opens the road to potential security breaches and other types of cyber-attacks. As your company hires more and more employees, the number of active endpoint devices increases and thus the increase of threat to cyber-breaches. It should be noted that every device that connects to your corporate network further weakens your network’s overall security posture. Not to be left out of consideration to the technical challenge of security is the increase in organizational cost to protecting a growing endpoint environment. On one side of the technology, there are innovators and developers working with sophisticated technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning. But also on the other side, there are malicious actors and computer experts with skills and technologies to bypass security solutions to gain access to corporate networks and critical systems. Attackers are becoming more sophisticated and attack techniques and delivery vectors becoming more sophisticated which have contributed to a scaling threat landscape. With the growth in value of organizational data and intellectual property, the same data value it is to crackers and threat agents. It is for this reason that all industries and organizations of all sizes have become potential targets. In this article, we will provide some brief insights about Endpoint Security and its importance to organizations going forward. What is Endpoint Security? Endpoint security is the cybersecurity approach to secure corporate networks through defending endpoints or entry points of end-user devices such as desktops, laptops and mobile devices from malicious activity. Given the number of connected endpoints to a corporate network, endpoints are, by default, the weak link in the network. Ensuring sophisticated robust endpoint security is of paramount necessity for the organization and the entire network to protect against a successful cyber-attack. What is an endpoint? An endpoint is any device that connects to the corporate network from outside its firewall. Examples of endpoint devices include Laptops, Tablets, mobile devices, Internet of things (IoT) devices, other devices that communicate with the central network. Why you need an Endpoint Security strategy? An endpoint security strategy is important to all businesses operating in a hybrid working environment. This is so because every remote endpoint is a potential entry point for an attack. And the endpoints are increasing every day given the rapid pandemic-related shift to remote work. According to a Gallup Poll, so many organizations have adopted remote working from 2020 to about 51% by end of 2021. The risks posed by endpoints and their sensitive data are a challenge that’s not going away. The Verizon 2021 Data Breach Investigations Report found “Servers are still dominating the asset landscape due to the prevalence of web apps and mail services involved in incidents. And attacks over social networks continue to compromise people (they have now pulled past user devices), we begin to see the domination of phishing emails and websites delivering malware used for fraud or espionage.” With the current challenges facing your organization concerning remote workers and the vulnerability of remote endpoints connected to the network, a greater emphasis on endpoint security should be considered a priority. All remote endpoints connect to the corporate network from outside the traditional perimeter of the corporate firewall and in some regards miss the benefit of monitoring incoming and outgoing connections. Cost of a data breach resulting from insecure endpoints Having in mind the cost implications and complexity of endpoint security risks, Ponemon’s research reveals 63% of enterprises have no capacity to monitor off-network endpoints, dark endpoints, leaving more than 50% of endpoints vulnerable to a costly data breach. Ponemon’s institute’s research about endpoint security reveals that traditional endpoint security approaches are inadequate. Organizations spend over $6 million annually in poor detection, slow response, and wasted time. As the aggressive nature of emerging threats to proprietary data continues to grow, the cost and complexity of reducing risks and confirming compliance are at an all-time high. Additionally, the study revealed that enterprises find it difficult to identify dark endpoints (or rogue access points, out-of-compliance devices, or off-network devices) which create blind spots and increase the organization’s vulnerability to attack. While there is less confidence in endpoint security, the IT security experts in this study believe that close to 60% of the time invested in the capture and evaluation of intelligence surrounding the true threats, to both compliance and proprietary data, can be saved each week by deploying automated solutions. Conclusion Malicious attacks will continue growing in sophistication and magnitude. Threat agents will continue to advance their skills and techniques of attacking. It is time organizations prepare for attacks to come and take into account the full picture of endpoint protection. Organizations need to focus on their security position by enhancing their security solutions. Endpoint Security Solutions need to have tools in place to detect and respond to targeted incidents. For example blocking malware through signature analysis, machine learning and behavioural analysis. Without an endpoint security strategy in place, protecting against endpoint attacks will be a great challenge to organizations going forward. Because endpoints exist where humans and machines intersect. To be continued…
Increasing entry points: Have you empowered your staff?
Human error has been highlighted as a major contributing element to cybersecurity vulnerabilities for years. It is a long-standing concern in cybersecurity breaches, thus requiring all enterprises to remain watchful and train their personnel on how to alleviate this risk. According to The Verizon Business 2021 Data Breach Investigations Report, 85 percent of breaches involved a human element, while over 80 percent of breaches were discovered by external parties. With an unprecedented number of people working remotely, phishing and ransomware attacks increased by 11 percent and 6 percent respectively, with instances of misrepresentation increasing by 15 times compared to the year 2020. Additionally, breach data showed that 61 percent of breaches involved credential data (95 percent of organizations suffering credential stuffing attacks had between 637 and 3.3 billion malicious login attempts through the year). As further noted by Tami Erwin, CEO of Verizon Business, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on many of the security challenges organizations are currently facing. As the number of companies switching business-critical functions to the cloud increases, the potential threat to their operations may become more pronounced, as malicious actors look to exploit human vulnerabilities and leverage an increased dependency on digital infrastructures. Employees and users’ unintended acts – or lack of action – that originate or propagate a security breach cover a wide variety of behaviours, from downloading a malware-infected attachment to failing to use a strong password. End-users often make mistakes because they don’t know what the appropriate course of action is in the first place. Users who are unaware of the risk of phishing are significantly more likely to fall prey to phishing efforts, and those who are unaware of the risks of public Wi-Fi networks will have their credentials harvested rapidly. Businesses must recognize that compromised credentials linked to privileged accounts are frequently the initial step in a ransomware attack. “Threat actors are chasing larger paydays and finding new vulnerabilities in a wide variety of targets, while many organisations are struggling to bring their cybersecurity up to standard for hybrid work,” said John Donovan, managing director ANZ, Sophos. How should businesses address this challenge? To reduce the possibilities for such errors, organizations need to understand why human errors occur and educate users on the consequences of their mistakes. Below are the measures we recommend. Businesses must adjust their cybersecurity mindset and embrace a new paradigm that assumes they will be hacked. As a result, it’s critical that leaders invest in the right end-point technology for a firm cybersecurity posture, as well as focus on resilience and recovery. Staff cybersecurity education must be prioritised by businesses in order to foster a cyber-aware culture. Educating and training staff on what security actions should be implemented before and during an attack is critical to lowering the number and severity of future security breaches. This entails ensuring that staff have secure online habits and practices in addition to the technology that has been introduced to successfully prevent cybercrime. While the specifics of how the systems and software in most reported breaches go unknown, the common means for attackers to get access include exploiting security vulnerabilities in code and security misconfiguration, both of which can be prevented by security-aware developers. Organisations must offer thorough training in secure code development and have every developer take responsibility for security. Threat actors have turned to social engineering, usually using email and compromised credentials, to gain access as perimeter defences have become more robust. The concepts of least privilege and segmentation are very effective in limiting the effects of a breach. Businesses must understand that compromised credentials are frequently the initial step in a ransomware attack. They should invest in multi-factor authentication, as well as password management systems that assist identify, manage, audit, monitor, and safeguard the credentials of privileged accounts. To help thwart malicious cyber incidents and reduce their impact, businesses should adopt next-generation data management capabilities that enable them to use immutable backup snapshots, encrypt data in transit and at rest, enable multi-factor authentication, detect potential anomalies using AI/ML, implement zero trust principles, and reduce their overall data footprint caused by mass data fragmentation.
Cybercrime is a constant business: Three business areas to watch out for!
Due to the ever-growing threat landscape in the digital ecosystem, your business must embrace cybersecurity irrespective of the size of the company. The statistics regarding data breaches on all business sizes show that the aftermaths of the data breaches are even becoming worse. According to IBM’s recent security survey, the average cost of a data breach rose from $3.86 million as was in the previous normal years to $4.24 million in 2021. This marks the highest average total cost of a data breach ever reported in history. Revenue loss impacts are significantly lower for organizations with a more mature cybersecurity posture. And higher for organizations that have not prioritized some areas such as cybersecurity. IBM’s report elaborates that it takes organizations an average of 287 days to identify and contain a data breach. This is seven days longer than in the previous reports. This means that once an organization was hit on February 1, it took 287 days on average to identify and contain. The breach wouldn’t be contained until November 14. The continuation of teleworking, the isolation of employees and the current vaccination situation have increased the playing field for attackers to practice successful social engineering schemes on staff that are not educated and well prepared to respond to such schemes. “Malicious attackers take advantage of the health crisis to craft targeted emails in order to divulge sensitive information from key staff at different levels of information access. With such carefully-tailored strategies, cyber-attackers are becoming more agile and sophisticated and increase the effectiveness of their actions,” There have been reported cases of email compromises, malware infestation, accidental information leakages, supply-chain and or third-party breaches, insider breaches. These are some of the common issues that organizations are facing today. Given the weary security landscape which involves intellectual property risks and client or staff data. Cybersecurity should be embraced as a must to one and all. It is a necessity in today’s time because a major chunk of business activities has gone online. Remote working has made the lives of staff easier and in some ways boosted productivity. It has widened the digital ecosystem hence extending risks from controlled environments to uncontrolled personal environments. Large organizations may have the budgets and capacity to manage endpoints but the SMEs may even go bankrupt trying to pay for incident response against a cyber-attack and or penalties of non-compliance. There can be a huge loss of revenue resulting in business disruption. What you need to know? Given the times, leaders need to take action now to prevent cyber-attacks from occurring. Leaders should structure policies, procedures and guidelines in place and be prepared for future incidences. As a leader, you need to evaluate the current security posture with a risk assessment. Check for holes where attacks can creep in. And develop an effective incident response plan to mitigate the far-reaching effects of a cyber-attack. Three areas that need urgent attention after data breaches. Any data breach towards an organization will target three different areas of the business. That is to say; the revenue of the organization, customers and the Organization’s reputation. The impact of the data breach may differ based on the organization. The impact on Revenue and finances: The ever-growing cybercrime in organizations has overburdened businesses with huge costs and greatly impacted the revenue of businesses. IBM reported in its Data breach report of 2021 where the study was conducted on 537 real breaches across 17 countries, regions and 17 different industries. It was concluded that on average, a data breach occurrence cost USD 4.24 million. Once hit by a data breach, there is always a financial implication for the organization. This depends on the nature of the data breach. Organizations hit with a data breach struggle with costs from containing the breach, compensating affected customers, comprehending a decreased share value and heightened security costs. Financial losses resulting from security breaches have been significant in past. Yet business leaders cannot forecast how or if financials will be affected in the event of a breach. Studies have proved that 29% of businesses that face a data breach end up losing revenue. Out of which 38% of organizations experience a loss of 20% or more and are unable to sustain the situation. The impact on Customers For customers to confide in what services an organization offers and their willingness to purchase the services will depend on the way an organization prioritizes its customer’s ‘information security. Thus, if an organization does not consider the security of customers’ data, a customer can vote with their feet and take their business elsewhere. Back in the days when customers lacked awareness of cyber security, they could not form any perception on the basis of the security plan of an organization. But now, with increased awareness and increasing cyber-attacks, customers are more conscious about where they are providing their information and how safe it will be in future. The scale of data breaches is what continues to shift the attitude of a customer. To say, Data breaches on giant firms like Marriot, Facebook, attract the attention of the public to data security concerns. Previously, data privacy was difficult to internalize, it was difficult to care about because it hadn’t directly affected people. Over 533 million users accounts including personal emails and contacts were found on hacker websites after the Facebook recent hack. And over 5.3 million guests records were stolen in the Marriot data breach scandal between mid-January 2020. Over a decade, Data breaches have been impacting customers at a large scale. But the interconnected nature of systems now makes news spread so fast. Hence impacting the trust of customers and hindering the reputation of organizations. Impact on Business Reputation: In the world of a rapidly scaling digital ecosystem with close networks and super-fast news, any information regarding data breaches spreads so fast over the internet or media. At times an organization makes news headlines not for its best performance in the industry but for its security being compromised due
