How can IT Operations teams stay ahead of the latest security threats?

In my experience, IT Operations team is the face of the IT department who are answering to end users. From a security perspective, below could be helpful: 1. "Security mindset" from the time you enter the office to when you leave. Find something suspicious, flag it and raise it with the security team 2. "Set alerts": Every tool you manage, assess the threats and risk it could impose and create alerts. There are shadow IT tools or few tools have inbuilt features. Use MDM for the same. 3. "Create rules and policies": Each tool should be evaluated and should have a guideline for best use. Block functions which could lead to threats like data manipulation, open access, visibility, admin rights etc.

'Know the IT estate you are managing' know the gaps, threats and risks. follow OEM patch releases and stay tuned to security news.

A few things here: - Get a list of all assets to inventory that you will need coverage for. Computers, phones, servers, cloud infrastructure. It all needs to be identified so you know where to begin. - Baseline if you have management of those systems i.e., an asset management tool like Intune. - You can't gain an understanding of security if you don't know what to secure or what the business is using. - Start with a BIA to assess critical assets to ensure coverage.

Here's a couple key categories to think about when it comes to managing security threats: Continuous Training for All Staff -Staff must be regularly trained on the latest security trends, attack techniques, and prevention methods. Topics should include simulated phishing exercises and security incident response drills. Role-Based Access Controls - Implement least privilege access controls and enforce strong authentication mechanisms to minimize the risk of unauthorized access. Regular Updates and Patch Management Develop and regularly update an incident response plan to ensure a quick and effective reaction to security breaches. This plan should include clear roles and responsibilities, communication strategies, and recovery procedures.

Integrate threat intelligence and stay informed about emerging threats. This proactive approach ensures you're aware of the latest risks and can adapt your security measures accordingly. Regular training for your team on security awareness and best practices is also crucial.

Don't make things too difficult to understand for your end users. Correlate training to what your environment runs. Having a relation to your business will allow for the employees to have a much better picture of what the training is attempting to get at. Don't pass or fail individuals. I know this seems like something that can help gauge success, but in reality it can be counterintuitive. Have additional learning criteria for specific areas of the business and what they would see more often than other business units.

I recommend engaging users with security awareness by using gamification. Slack badges and company-wide "levels" work very well!

There are several steps that IT Operations teams can take to stay ahead of the latest security threats by implementing a security awareness program. These include: 1. Regular training and education 2. Create and enforce security policies, 3. Regularly update software and systems, 4. Conduct regular security assessments, 5. Implement strong authentication mechanisms, 6. Monitor and analyze security logs, 7. Stay informed about the latest threats, 8. Engage with external security expert, By implementing a comprehensive security awareness program and following the steps mentioned above, IT Operations teams can establish a proactive approach to staying ahead of the latest security threats and continuously improve the overall security posture.

? Regularly update & patch systems to close any vulnerabilities that could be exploited by attackers. ? Employ multi-factor authentication to add an extra layer of security for accessing sensitive information. ? Conduct regular security audits and risk assessments to identify & mitigate potential threats. ? Establish clear policies for mobile and remote work to secure off-site access & use of company data. ? Encourage employees to report suspicious activities immediately, ensuring quick action against potential threats. ? Implement strict access controls & privilege management to ensure that employees have access only to data for their roles. ? Backup regularly & ensure recovery procedures are in place in case of a security breach.

? Assume Breach Mindset ? Continuous Verification: Implement dynamic security measures that validate identities and privileges constantly, not just at the point of entry. ? Least-Privilege Access: Restrict user access rights to the minimum necessary to perform their job functions, effectively limiting potential damage from compromised credentials. ? Multi-Factor Authentication ? Encryption Everywhere: Protect data at rest and in transit to ensure confidentiality and integrity, making unauthorized data breaches less impactful. ? Anomaly Detection: Employ advanced monitoring tools to detect unusual patterns that may indicate a security incident, enabling rapid response.

Zero trust should be not only for endpoints but also for other assets and services, such as APIs. Think about 0T as a generic concept, and not a standard or compliance, since it's more about ideology, not an ISOxxxx.

Zero-trust is like the "trust no one" mantra for cybersecurity. It's all about always double-checking, locking down access, and keeping a close eye on everything. For data centre environments use subnet separation for different workloads. I.E. Domain Controllers should not be in the same subnet as web servers. Also, design environments so all your subnet’s Layer 3 interfaces are on a firewall instead of a switch; this way all traffic traversing subnets can be filtered and inspected.

The zero-trust model assumes that no user or device within a network should be trusted by default. This approach involves verifying and validating every user, device, and network connection before granting access to resources. This would be implemented by considering the following practices: 1. Micro-segmentation, 2. Multi-factor authentication (MFA), 3. Least privilege access, 4. Continuous monitoring, 5. Encryption, 6. Endpoint protection, 7. Regular vulnerability assessments and penetration testing, 8. Security awareness training, 9. Incident response planning, By implementing the best practices mentioned above, IT Operations teams can enhance their overall security posture and proactively stay ahead of the latest security threats.

Now with the help of ChatGPT and AI, many automation things, like parsing, conversion, and integration between different formats and security policies and rules are just easy to automate. It was not there for decades!

It would be of value to adopt at an Enterprise Architecture framework to identify areas of improvement that benefit from integration of security tools. The DoD Architecture Framework (DoDAF) 2.02, or the Zachman Framework 3.0 both offer a number of different viewpoints for this type of process and system model analysis. Properly developed Enterpise Architecture artifacts provide the mentioned visibility and inform all kinds of decision-making.

There are several ways that IT Operations teams can stay ahead of the latest security threats by automating security tasks and workflows, such as: 1. Continuous monitoring, 2. Security incident response automation, 3. Patch management automation, 4. Vulnerability scanning and remediation, 5. Security policy enforcement, 6. User behavior analysis, 7. Security awareness training, By automating the security tasks and workflows mentioned above, IT Operations teams can significantly improve their efficiency in detecting, responding to, and mitigating security threats. Automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks also allows the team to focus on more strategic security initiatives, ultimately helping them stay ahead of the latest threats.

I highly recommend to subscribe for technologies/product updates you actually have and use hubs such as vulners.com to get these data for free in a real-time.

Vigilance, continuous learning, and peer collaboration enable IT ops to implement proactive defenses before new threats take hold. - Subscribe to threat intelligence feeds, alerts and newsletters from trusted industry sources like US-CERT, SANS ISC, Bugcrowd and Security Week. - Follow key infosec thought leaders on blogs and social media - Allocate time for team members to regularly study cybersecurity reports, research and threat models. - Discuss new threats during team meetings and brainstorm potential impacts to your environment and mitigation tactics. - Meet regularly with your security vendors and local security meetups to learn about the latest threats they are seeing and new protection capabilities.

Constantly update the knowledge base. Keeping up with trending technologies and threats through viable sources like tech websites and magazines, to name a few. For more reliable information, subscribe to newsletters from security engineering organizations, and encourage learning and upskilling within teams, especially, the Security team.

A few examples: - Latest CVE's - Threat intelligence feeds. There are plenty of free and open source applications. - Security news websites; HackerNews, BleepingComputer, or vendor websites such as Microsoft and Amazon. - Some great events such as CSA virtual events, Blackhat, RSA, defcon, local chapter events for NIST, ISACA, CSA etc.

One great way to stay ahead the threats is an extended collaboration! 2 examples: - Most companies today are part of some threat - Intel exchange stream. My advice - participate actively in it, use the info, find the best way to disseminate this info and train your organization at multiple layers. - If you work with a vendor who has a SOC - closely collaborated with the SOC team to be in the know. For example - @ThreatX has an incredible SOC team, and the exchange with them has been very enlightening and helpful for our security teams.

Implement a Change Management Process, where security related issues are identified a dealt with, before deployment. If Change Advisory Board exists, representatives from IT Security must be members of this Board.

One thing to consider is that in a large organization most of the time, patching takes a lot of time and effort because there are too many systems to be patched. In this case, the Cybersecurity team always should monitor the unpatched systems and take some measures to control this risk.