Secure Thyself!

One of the most interesting things about my job is the vantage to see what customers are doing across APAC in the midmarket space. I've always been fascinated by the midmarket opportunity - organizations that have "graduated" from being a startup, to now building on their niche and accelerating towards becoming large companies. It's in this space that companies often take their (last) lasting decisions on their Tech stack, though I'll admit that more frequently these days that's happening earlier and earlier.

One of the most common threads through APAC over the last 12 months has been the push from CXO's to secure the organization. Security has always been an important area for CIO's to focus on, but I'm now seeing CEO's and BDM's push towards this. Naturally the biggest driver has been remote working on account of the pandemic, but the uptake on the entire security stack has been rapid. Here are 3 aspects of Security that should absolutely take precedence for you if you haven't started on this journey yet.

Harden the Endpoint

This one is probably the easiest and most natural. Do you use an Antivirus on your personal computer? Naturally you'd expect this at work as well. While most organizations have adopted antivirus software at work, inevitably it does just that - act as an Antivirus. We're in an era of NGAV (next gen antivirus) now which are a part of a bundle of protection capabilities ranging from EDR (Endpoint Detection & Response) to investigation & remediation. It's also important to invest in a stack where definitions are updated in real time - because threats evolve in real time. That's the advantage of cloud solutions - they learn from other points in the network and pass information on so everyone is on the same latest version. Herd protection anyone?

Think about this in a remote work context in a multi-device world - and you'll see just how easy it is to leave a door open to bad actors, and just how important it is to defend that now. This is particularly true in the case of BYOD scenarios where balancing personal privacy and maintaining corporate policies often need to go hand in hand.

Find the Phish (and stop it)

While Antivirus software of any sort will probably be a good first line of defense against basic threats, the actors making those threats know that as well. This is why Phising attacks have gone up and now constitute almost 60% of all Cyberattacks as seen through COVID. Ensuring the inboxes, links and information protection is in place is as critical as yesterday's antivirus-and-forget-it thinking. This is a great first line of defense - don't treat it as an optional nice to have.

Taking it a step further and running fire drills on Phising are also a great tip that I've seen work at successfully training the workforce to recognize these attacks should there be any that happen to sneak through security paradigms.

Human led, AI driven

One of the biggest challenges in the Security space today is the lack of security professionals. One of the most common questions I'm asked by CIO's and CISO's are about tips & tricks to bring it all together with small teams and thin resources. The trick is to set the direction with your team, but then let AI do the heavy lifting. Automated Incident Response & Investigation tools, Threat Trackers and finally SIEM's that bring it all together are what will ensure that your investments are maximized - and your team's time is spent doing the really valuable actions rather than running down every flag from every system.

I've also seen that maximum coverage with the minimum number of disparate tools & vendors does wonders for companies - reducing the hassle of bringing different vendor tools together themselves, and fretting over different philosophies and technology. It also ensures that CISO become best friends with their Procurement counterparts - less vendors mean less contracts, cost optimization opportunities and better bargaining power with larger investments.

Getting Going

There is much organizations can do on security, it's a big world with a lot of surfaces to protect but as always - the best policy is to start somewhere. The one thing I would caveat is for you to treat every employee the same when it comes to Cybersecurity. While CXO's & BDM's absolutely need to be protected with the maximum coverage - remember that any employee connected to your network, part of your AD or even accessing Corporate resources is an entry point for malicious intent. Only a truly democratic approach to security will protect an organization - and will form the strongest foundations for your security posture.

If you'd like to learn more, as always, feel free to reach out to me or your Microsoft account rep and we'll be happy to help. You can also consider participating in our CXO Executive Briefing Events that cover these in more depth. Microsoft's own security blog is a great way to get caught up on the latest we do and learn - great reading material :)

Until then, stay safe and secure - personally and professionally!

Encouraged Topical Reading: Impact of COVID-19 on Cybersecurity (deloitte.com)