Deep Dive: Unconventional Strategies for Fortressing Your Security Posture

In today's ever-escalating cyberwarfare, building an impenetrable security fortress requires venturing beyond the standard firewalls and antivirus shields. Let's delve into unconventional strategies that can bolster your defenses and surprise even the most cunning attackers.

Think Unthinkable, Act Unpredictable:

• Embrace the Underdogs: While familiar names dominate the software landscape, consider migrating sensitive operations to lesser-known applications. Their smaller attack surfaces make them less predictable targets, potentially throwing attackers off guard. But beware, thorough vetting and security assessments are crucial before diving in.

• Friend or Foe? The Internal Keylogger Conundrum: This ethically sensitive but potentially powerful tool can monitor employee activity but with great caution. Ensure strict regulations and employee privacy are upheld. Remember, prioritize prevention through comprehensive training and access control before resorting to monitoring.

• Zero Trust: Your Network, Your Rules: Ditch the outdated "trust but verify" approach and embrace "never trust, always verify" with Zero Trust methodology. Segment your network, enforce multi-factor authentication for every access attempt, and implement least-privilege access, granting escalation only when absolutely necessary. Remember, trust is earned, not assumed.

Beyond Your Walls: Securing the Extended Ecosystem:

• Vendor Risk Management: Don't Let the Backdoor Swing Open: Third-party vendors are often the weakest link in the security chain. Conduct thorough attack surface assessments and due diligence checks on every vendor. Prioritize those with demonstrably robust security postures and minimal dark web exposure. Remember, your security is only as strong as your weakest link.

• Move Security Beyond Marketing Hype: Don't fall victim to "security theater," where vendors showcase impressive-sounding features without the substance. Demand transparency and evidence of effectiveness. Request detailed security audits and penetration testing reports to see their defenses in action. Remember, security is not a show, it's a shield.

Remember:

• There's No Silver Bullet: These strategies are complementary tools, not magic solutions. Integrate them with traditional security practices and a risk-based approach for maximum impact.

• Context is King: What works for one organization might not be suitable for another. Tailor your approach based on your specific industry, risk profile, and resources.

• Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Liberty: The threat landscape is a living, evolving beast. Stay updated on new vulnerabilities, adapt your strategies accordingly, and conduct regular security assessments to identify and address emerging threats. Remember, security is a continuous journey, not a one-time destination.

By embracing these unconventional ideas, adapting them to your unique context, and maintaining a proactive approach, you can build a security posture that not only deters attackers but leaves them bewildered and frustrated. Remember, the best defense is an unexpected one. Let's start thinking outside the box and outsmart the adversaries before they even have a chance.

Protecting Against Ransomware: Zero Trust Security

Zero trust isn't a silver bullet for ransomware, but if implemented well, it can help create a much more robust security defense.

 Did you know only 26% of companies have a specific incident response plan for ransomware? With ransomware attacks constantly on the rise, your organization needs to be prepared and take every possible precaution.

Reduce your organization’s risk with CyberSecOp Zero Trust Program. With the help of a single-source platform for your compliance program, you can protect against vulnerabilities while reducing incident response time by as much as 60%.  

Ransomware victims paid more than $600 million to cybercriminals in 2021. According to blockchain analysis firm, Chainalysis, more than $600 million in cryptocurrency could be tied to ransomware payments in 2021, with the Conti ransomware gang accounting for nearly one-third of those payments.  

HOW CAN CYBERSECOP HELP YOUR ORGANIZATION BE CYBER READY?

CyberSecOp provides cyber risk and advisory programs that identify security gaps and build strategies using Zero Trust or other security frameworks. The zero-trust model is an effective defense mechanism for preventing ransomware. Adoption of zero-trust architecture, the modern alternative to perimeter-based security, is one of the most effective ways to prevent ransomware attacks.

Ransomware Protection with Zero Trust Security

Zero Trust Security Architecture: Why is the Zero Trust Security Model important?

Endpoints represent the most significant attack surface, according to IDC, with over 70% of breaches originating on the endpoint. Organizations have a diverse mix of endpoints connected to their network, whether laptops, mobile endpoints, servers, firewall, wireless hotspots, or IoT devices. Zero-trust architecture works to ensure that users, devices and network traffic are all verified and subjected to least-privilege rules when accessing trusted resources. This way, compromised assets are limited in their scope and an attacker is prevented from moving laterally across the network.

With the rise of remote endpoints and high-profile ransomware attacks, businesses face more cybersecurity threats than ever before. Traditional network security models which assume users and computing devices within the “trusted” network environment are free from compromise and cannot secure organizations. Businesses are also now recognizing that attacks are more sophisticated and that internal networks are no longer more trustworthy than what lies outside the firewall. CyberSecOp and the security community recognized that Zero-trust security is the ultimate protection against ransomware.

Zero Trust Security Optimization

Zero Trust Network (ZTN) concept follows the mantra of never trust, always verify. Through this approach, organizations can reduce their open attack surface and adopt enhanced security capabilities beyond traditional defenses. Zero Trust enables organizations to reduce risk of their cloud and container deployments while also improving governance and compliance. Organizations can gain insight into users and devices while identifying threats and maintaining control across a network.

Traditional – manual configurations and attribute assignment, static security policies, least-function established at provisioning, proprietary and inflexible policy enforcement, manual incident response, and mitigation capability.

Advanced – some cross-solution coordination, centralized visibility, centralized identity control, policy enforcement based on cross-solution inputs and outputs, some incident response to pre-defined mitigations, some least-privilege changes based on posture assessments.

Optimal – fully automated assigning of attributes to assets and resources, dynamic policies based on automated/observed triggers, assets have dynamic least-privilege access (within thresholds), alignment with open standards for cross pillar interoperability, centralized visibility with retention for historical review

10 Ransomware Prevention Best Practices

Below are 10 best practices to help security professionals improve endpoint management:

CyberSecOp Managed Zero Trust security services were built with a new approach that creates zero-trust connections between the users and applications directly to solve this unique challenge. As a scalable, cloud-native platform, it enables digital transformation by securely connecting users,

devices, and applications anywhere, without relying on network-wide access. This platform is delivered by five key architecture attributes, unique to the CyberSecOp Managed Zero Trust Security services that together enable organizations to provide strong security and a great user experience to their employees and customers.

1. Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is is an electronic authentication method in which a computer user is granted access to a website or application only after successfully presenting two or more pieces of evidence to an authentication.

2. Email Security is critical because 74% of organizations in the United States experienced a successful phishing attack. Implementing email security gateway, DMARC, SPF, DKIM, stronger encryption, and MFA can reduce email compromise by over 98%.

3. CyberSecOp endpoint management solution that supports application isolation and containment technology is a form of zero-trust endpoint security. Instead of detecting or reacting to threats, it enforces controls that block and restrain harmful actions to prevent compromise. Application containment is used to block harmful file and memory actions on other apps on the endpoint. Application isolation is used to prevent other endpoint processes from altering or stealing from an isolated app or resources. This can prevent ransomware from being deployed on devices.

4. CyberSecOp endpoint management solution support Protective DNS Service (PDNS) refers to a service that provides Domain Name Service (DNS) protection (also known as DNS filtering) by blacklisting dangerous sites and filtering out unwanted content. It can also help to detect & prevent malware that uses DNS such as URL in phishing emails and hiding tunnels to communicate attackers' command and control servers.

5. CyberSecOp endpoint management solution supports bandwidth throttling so that remote endpoints can be continuously patched and secured rather than having to periodically send IT resources to remote locations. Our solution delivers patch management over the internet without requiring corporate network access. This ensures that internet-facing systems are patched in a proactive, timely manner rather than IT having to wait for these devices to visit the corporate network before they can be scanned and remediated.

6. CyberSecOp endpoint management reduces administrative overhead of endpoint management solutions to accommodate tight budgets and future growth. Our solutions support many endpoints using a single management system.

7. Consolidate endpoint management tools. Use a single tool to patch systems across Windows, Mac and variations of Unix operating systems to simplify administration, minimize the number of open network ports, and reduce the number of active agents on endpoints.

8. Validate that the endpoint management solution provides accurate, real-time endpoint data and reports. End users make changes to endpoints all the time and information that is hours or days old may not reflect a current attack surface.

9. CyberSecOp endpoint management allows administrators to apply patches that address the highest levels of risk first based on current endpoint status. This gives the biggest impact from remediation efforts.

10. Make sure the endpoint management solution enforces regulatory and corporate compliance policies on all endpoints constantly to avoid unintended drift and introduction of new vulnerabilities.

To conclude

Ransomware protection needs to go beyond detecting and blocking an initial malware infection at the email perimeter. Malware can enter your organization by other means, and cyber attacks often use the web channel to contact command and control servers and download the encryption keys necessary to complete the cyber attack.