Most IT professionals are well aware of the need to protect their computing environment from threat actors and various types of data loss scenarios. A company’s IT resources are continuously under attack from malicious entities attempting to introduce ransomware or other types of malware into its infrastructure. Businesses can lose crucial data due to accidental or deliberate actions by employees or contractors.
Cybersecurity refers to the measures an organization takes to protect its IT environment and data resources. Organizations with a strong cybersecurity posture strive to keep unauthorized users out of their infrastructure using tools such as firewalls and robust Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies. Teams utilize solutions such as intrusion detection platforms to identify threats that are already resident in the infrastructure.
The increasing range, number, and sophistication of cyberattacks, combined with the ever-present risks of accidental or deliberate data loss, make it almost a certainty that an organization will have to deal with the repercussions of a cyber incident affecting its IT environment. Traditional cybersecurity measures are no longer sufficient to protect a company’s valuable data and computer systems. Businesses must adopt a new approach that extends beyond mere cybersecurity and promotes resilience in the event of a cyber incident.
What is Cyber Resilience?
Cyber resilience is a strategy for protecting an organization’s IT resources that acknowledges the probability of a successful cyberattack or a damaging data loss situation. Cyber resilience builds on a company’s preventative cybersecurity measures by adding initiatives that promote continuity, adaptability, and recovery after a cyber incident. Organizations implementing actions to support cyber resilience understand the financial, regulatory, and potentially life-threatening consequences of downtime or data loss.
Cyber resilience refers to a business’s ability to protect itself from various types of cyber incidents. A practical approach to cyber resilience encompasses the following key elements, enabling a company to survive and recover from cyberattacks or data loss.
- Preparation – Companies must prepare for the inevitable cyberattack or data loss that could affect mission-critical systems or resources. Effective preparation involves understanding both existing and emerging threats, as well as their potential impact on the IT environment and the ability to maintain business operations. Teams must prepare for attacks from external threat actors and the risk of insider activity that leads to data loss or corruption.
- Protection – Organizations must deploy the appropriate protective measures to address threats to the IT environment. Robust protection typically includes many traditional cybersecurity solutions, such as firewalls, data encryption, antivirus platforms, and strict access controls. New threats must be taken seriously and addressed with innovative defenses such as endpoint protection.
- Detection – Teams must implement solutions capable of quickly detecting anomalous behavior that may indicate the presence of internal or external threat actors. Companies that can rapidly detect data breaches or incursions stand a better chance of successfully defending themselves and keeping their businesses running.
- Response – Decision-makers must ensure that plans are in place to respond to incidents as soon as they are detected. All business-critical infrastructure components and data resources need dedicated and tested response plans to minimize the effects of a cyber incident.
- Recovery – Teams must be prepared to quickly recover affected systems and data resources in the event of a cyber incident. Modern businesses cannot afford extended downtime or the loss of valuable information. Successful recovery is essential for effective cyber resilience.
Best Practices for Implementing a Cyber Resiliency Approach
Organizations should follow these best practices to integrate cyber resilience into their existing cybersecurity strategies.
Adopt a risk-based approach
Companies must perform a comprehensive risk assessment to identify their valuable assets and potential vulnerabilities. Organizations should prioritize resources based on their importance to the business and the possible impact of their loss in the event of a cyber incident. Teams may find it helpful to leverage tools such as the NIST Risk Management Framework when performing their assessments. Decision-makers should subscribe to cyber threat intelligence (CTI) feeds to gain insight into emerging risks.
Deploy layered cyber defenses
A multi-layered defense is necessary to address the range of cyber threats. Robust protection involves defenses that focus on defending the following aspects of the IT environment.
- The perimeter should be protected with solutions like firewalls and network segmentation.
- Endpoints need protection with antivirus and Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) tools.
- Access to resources must be controlled with measures such as IAM policies, multi-factor authentication (MFA), and restricting privileged accounts.
- Data resources need to be safeguarded with end-to-end encryption and data loss prevention (DLP) solutions.
- Application protection should be provided via secure software development and code scanning.
Promote a Zero-Trust architecture
Companies must verify all internal and external interactions with the IT environment and enforce least privilege access backed up with stringent IAM policies. Microsegmentation should be considered to limit the effects of a data breach. Teams should monitor and verify user and device behavior and activity to identify potentially dangerous anomalies.
Incident response planning
Businesses must be prepared to respond quickly to incidents to minimize their impact. Companies should define roles for response teams and develop playbooks for common incident types. Response teams should test the plans to verify their efficacy and identify areas that need improvement.
Disaster recovery and business continuity
Cyber resilience requires planning for the inevitable incident. Companies must develop and test viable disaster recovery (DR) plans that include creating offline, immutable backups. Teams should implement failover systems for critical services and applications that may involve redundancy across multiple geographic regions. The DR plans should be tested regularly and updated to address changes in the environment and streamline recovery processes.
Monitoring and detection
Organizations must continuously monitor the environment to detect anomalies in user behavior, network traffic, and endpoint activity that may indicate a threat. Teams can quickly activate response plans to mitigate the incident.
VAST Supports Your Cyber Resilience
VAST has services designed to protect your IT environment and support a cyber-resilient approach. We offer customers the following solutions to safeguard their valuable resources and ensure continual business operations after a cyber incident.
Our Business Continuity service leverages our vendor partnerships and technical expertise to help you develop, deploy, and manage the data recovery solutions you need to protect your company.
Cloud Backup-as-a-Service (CBaaS) enables the creation of immutable backups, protecting your data from both external and internal threats.
Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS) enables you to quickly recover systems after a disaster, maintaining business operations, leveraging the power of AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery.
Contact us to learn how we can help you integrate cyber resilience into your cybersecurity strategy, enabling you to protect your business in today’s evolving threat landscape.
