The widespread adoption of hybrid and remote working, accelerated by the COVID pandemic, seems here to stay. For organisations globally, re-designing IT suites to support this way of work has become non-negotiable and a key principle in increasing the resilience of their IT infrastructure.
A central enabler for this has been the rise of cloud computing. Since its inception, cloud computing has become a critical component of most enterprise tech stacks, with many applications now being hosted in the cloud. While the adoption of cloud computing has brought numerous benefits, enabling businesses to leverage scalable resources on demand, it has also brought new challenges to network security. A recent report by IBM on the cost of data breaches revealed that 82% of breaches involved data stored in the cloud.
Policies like Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and the increased use of Internet of Things (IoTs) have magnified the number of endpoints for malicious cyber threats, leaving organisations grappling with an increasing cyber-attack surface.
Scaling the growing attack surface
Hybrid working provides a host of benefits, including increased flexibility and the ability to work remotely from anywhere, including on the go. The added mobility is great for the balance it provides employees; however, it can increase the risk to company, employee and customer data. This is because public networks are open to all, and modern threat actors can now use simple tools to gain access to vulnerable data like login details via the shared public WiFi networks.
With data becoming easier for threat actors to access, long-term solutions that provide greater protection and resilience for vulnerable data are sorely needed. However, many organisations still rely on point security solutions to address each challenge as it arises, which can be expensive and create difficulties in IT management while opening critical gaps in security posture for threat actors to exploit. If solutions are bought for specific functions, the control of functional overlaps and the interplay with other point solutions can lead to grey areas of control which can leave the network vulnerable.
Organisations need to understand that no device is safe from cyber-attacks, even photocopiers can be breached. If the device is connected to the network and has an IP address, it is a potential entry point for threat actors to exploit. Furthermore, mitigating the risk that comes with these breaches can become extremely difficult once access has already been gained, especially for organisations that don’t have a zero trust policy implemented.
Moving on from point solutions
In today’s landscape, organisations simply cannot rely on outdated point solutions to solve every problem. Two modern examples of where this produces risk are the deployment of Software Defined Wide Area Networks (SD-WAN), which were developed to primarily support on-site networking, and Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), which have been the mainstay of remote network access for over 20 years. However, these solutions are becoming increasingly unreliable due to not being able to offer visibility of the applications or devices, hampering threat detection and mitigation capability beyond the initial authentication.
Consequently, a comprehensive review of security policies is important. Traditional solutions operate in silos and do not provide visibility after initial user authentication has taken place. As a result, this makes them unsuitable to mitigate threats that are increasing in volume and sophistication and require constant monitoring.
Utilising deeper inspection capabilities
With many organisations moving towards the cloud, outdated solutions are no longer fit for purpose. Deploying Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) solutions can prove a crucial first step forward in protecting data from threats to cloud and endpoint security. Even better, a holistic single-stack approach to deploying cloud security solutions limits the gaps between point solutions.
This is important for several reasons. Firstly, single stack solutions makes IT operations easier to manage, as everything is centralised to one platform. Perhaps more importantly, it reduces the number of gaps between solutions, resulting in a single-stack offering that can be more easily underpinned by zero-trust architecture. Due to its deeper inspection capabilities, a zero-trust solution monitors user activity beyond the initial authentication, unlike its outdated counterparts, providing greater visibility across attack vectors at network, device and application level.
Navigating modern security risks
The cyber attack surface is rapidly expanding, but organisations shouldn’t let that get in the way of adopting hybrid and remote workflows. Flexible working offers businesses a variety of advantages but only if organisations take the risks seriously. Tangible benefits like financial and productivity gains aside, a more satisfied and engaged workforce is easier to retain, and amid an ongoing challenge to skills shortages in both cyber-security and the wider IT environment, organisations need to ensure they can attract and retain talent.
Doing this is far easier if organisations simplify their operations, which is supported by a single network security stack built on zero trust. Visibility is key in today’s environment as it not only helps organisations prevent significant data breaches but enables greater incident response capabilities should they be required.
By embracing cloud-native security tools and cultivating an environment of cybersecurity awareness, organisations can more easily navigate an increasingly complex threat landscape, while allowing them to reap the advantages of hybrid and remote work.
