Cybersecurity strategies must adapt as cyber-attacks change. With the broad availability of generative AI tools these days, cybersecurity is seeing a major shift. Traditional reactive approaches, which focus on responding to attacks after they occur, is no longer enough. Neither is simply “accepting” the risk and hoping that malicious actors won’t be interested in targeting your enterprise. Instead, many CIOs and CISOs have started to embrace a proactive security strategy to safeguard their critical assets and data. Are you one of them?
Exposure management arrived on the cyber scene a few years ago and has been gaining a lot of traction as a more comprehensive cybersecurity approach. Exposure management focuses on understanding and managing your organization’s overall exposure to risk. It takes into account all of the factors that contribute to your risk, including vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and even the behavior of your employees. In this blog post, we’ll discuss why you should consider shifting to an exposure management strategy. We also dive into “continuous threat exposure management,” which is a process defined Gartner® that you can use to implement an exposure management strategy.
What is Proactive Security?
Proactive security prioritizes the identification and mitigation of potential vulnerabilities and threats before they can be exploited. Unlike many current cybersecurity strategies, which focus on incident response and damage control after an attack, proactive security aims to prevent attacks from happening in the first place. This approach involves monitoring and assessing an organization’s attack surface and risks and implementing measures to strengthen defenses on a continual basis.
Why Proactive Security is Essential
There are many benefits to proactive security, such as:
- Reduced Risk of Cyberattacks: By proactively identifying and addressing vulnerabilities, organizations can significantly reduce the risk of successful cyberattacks.
- Improved Security Posture: Proactive security enables organizations to continuously monitor and improve their defenses, resulting in a stronger overall security posture.
- Cost Savings: Preventing cyberattacks is far more cost-effective than dealing with the aftermath. (UnitedHealth Group estimated that the Change Healthcare cyberattack will cost them $1.6B in response and recovery.) Proactive security can save organizations significant financial losses associated with data breaches, downtime, and recovery efforts.
- Enhanced Compliance: Most regulatory frameworks require organizations to demonstrate a baseline security strategy that includes having defined processes for patching or vulnerability scanning, which are often done on a set schedule. Proactive security goes beyond this by actively identifying and mitigating risks continuously versus every set number of days.
Core Components of a Proactive Security Strategy
There are a few different technology areas or components to a proactive security strategy. Here are some outlined by Omdia, a global analyst and advisory leader:
- Attack Surface Management: Continuously identify and manage all potential entry points for attackers, including hardware, software, and human vulnerabilities.
- Risk-Based Vulnerability Management: Prioritize vulnerabilities based on their potential impact and likelihood of exploitation, focusing resources on the most critical risks.
- Security Posture Management: Regularly assess and monitor the organization’s overall security posture, identifying weaknesses and implementing improvements.
- Incident Simulation and Testing: Simulate cyberattacks to test the effectiveness of defenses and identify areas for improvement.
- Penetration Testing and Red Teaming: Engage ethical hackers to simulate real-world attacks, uncovering vulnerabilities and providing valuable insights into an attacker’s perspective.
The Power of Automation in Proactive Security
In Omdia’s latest research report on proactive security, the firm highlights the importance of automation: “…proactive security solutions will not deliver their full potential without strong security automation capabilities.”
Clearly, automation plays a pivotal role in proactive security by enabling organizations to streamline and scale their efforts. Unlike AI tools right now, automated tools can be evaluated and audited by existing team members. Automation can help continuously monitor systems, scan for vulnerabilities, and even apply patches and updates, freeing up valuable human resources to focus on more strategic tasks. The benefits of automation include:
- Improved Efficiency: Automate repetitive tasks, reducing the risk of human error and accelerating response times.
- Increased Accuracy: Automated tools can analyze vast amounts of data with greater precision than humans, identifying subtle patterns and anomalies that might otherwise go unnoticed.
- Enhanced Speed: Respond to threats in real time, minimizing the window of opportunity for attackers.
Implementing a Proactive Security Strategy
Transitioning to a proactive security approach requires a well-defined roadmap and a commitment to continuous improvement. Here are some essential steps:
- Leadership Buy-In: Secure support from your executive team to ensure adequate resources and prioritization of security initiatives.
- Employee Training: Educate employees about the importance of security and their role in maintaining a strong security posture.
- Continuous Improvement: Regularly review and update your security strategy to adapt to evolving threats and technologies.
Proactive security is no longer a luxury; it is a necessity for organizations of all sizes and industries. By embracing a proactive approach, organizations can significantly reduce their risk of cyberattacks, improve their security posture, and save money.
Join us for an upcoming webinar (July 11 at 10 AM PT) on proactive security, where we’ll discuss proactive security insights and trends gathered by the analyst firm Omdia.
