CYBERSECURITY MESH

What is Cyber ​​Security?

Cyber ​​security protects systems linked to the Internet against cyberspace threats or cyber-attacks. It covers software, data, and hardware and prevents cybercriminals from gaining access to devices or networks.

Types of Cyber ​​Security

Cyber security is every measure by which individuals and companies can protect their devices and files from the threat of malicious hackers.

It should be well known that the term hacker does not designate a criminal, so much so that some people use the term cracker to refer to those who practice virtual crimes.

Just as there are different types of hackers, there are also other types of cyber security:

• Operational Security

Imagine that you are a newly hired recruit of a startup with an excellent reputation in the market.

In this case, you should certainly not have access to local company data, such as those related to accounting and tax.

This type of control is part of the operational security routines, in which the company decides how it will protect its data, defining what accesses it and how they access it.

By the way, companies that fail in this aspect expose themselves to so-called insiders, as hackers who act within their facilities are known to take advantage of privileged access.

• Network Security

DoS (Denial of Service) and DDoS attacks are the most common.

They consist of artificially overloading the flow of data on a network, making its use unfeasible by its users.

Let’s say, for example, that a cracker intends to steal sensitive data from a company, but for that, he needs, at the same time, to prevent the IT area from trying to contain him.

A DDoS, in this case, can serve as a “smoke screen,” blocking people from accessing the network where the attacked servers are located.

Containing this type of attack is one of the functions of professionals and sectors intended to provide network security, including general protection against malware.

• Application Security

Just as networks are exposed to attacks, so are the applications we use, whether in a personal context or within companies.

Application security is cyber security’s response to threats directed at software installed on computers and mobile devices.

This way, sensitive data, especially passwords and access data, are protected.

For this, companies that provide applications define the security protocols to be implemented even before starting to develop them.

• End User Education

A cyber-attack is not always the result of the deliberate action of a cracker or an insider.

In some situations, ordinary users unknowingly repeat risky behavior and inadvertently distribute viruses and malware.

To prevent this type of spread of malicious agents, companies that invest in cyber security must also focus on end-user education.

In this regard, they take responsibility for carrying forward cyber security information, warning about the risks of opening certain types of email and connecting USB devices.

In this way, it is possible to mitigate the high unpredictability generated by the lack of knowledge that the average person has about online security.

• Cloud Security

Like network security, cloud security is dedicated to anticipating threats surrounding a set of devices that share access to platforms in that environment.

It aims to prevent unauthorized data leakage and shield the cloud against possible weaknesses and susceptibilities.

It also seeks to exploit possible weaknesses in access controls to avoid attacks and obtrusion in the availability of cloud computing services.

In the case of cloud systems, the main threats are malware and attacks, such as so-called advanced persistent threats (APTs)

How does cyber security mesh works?

Cyber security mesh protects technological systems managed in isolation, such as perimeter firewalls, network security devices, and security software.

CSM helps secure access points and ensures that there are no recorded cases of data breaches, both known and unknown

How do you implement a cyber-security mesh?

Implementing a cyber-security mesh includes identifying your attack surfaces, then using a unified, centralized, and multi-faceted system that save all of your digital assets.

• Short-term effects of cyber security mesh

Practical thinkers may wonder how this all changes in their daily lives. Unluckily, the answer is no, at least not immediately or in the short term.

As Gartner described, practitioners, can purchase any number of products that help achieve CSMA’s fundamentals. Likewise, organizations are adapting their multi-cloud and work-from-anywhere strategies to separate policy from implementation, eliminate silos in their security stack, and adjust to an increasingly porous and fragmented environment. For the latter, in some cases, they use architectures that entirely avoid the perimeter concept.

•  Long-term effects of cyber security mesh

From a long-term perspective, the cyber security mesh being discussed by Gartner is beneficial for practitioners for three reasons:

• Philosophical shifts sometimes drive the market, and the market, in turn, influences real-life architectures.
• Industry acceptance makes incorporating the concept into architectural approaches easier.
• It helps drive interoperability.

How important is cyber security?

A strong cyber security strategy

Provide a good security posture against malicious attacks designed to access, alter, delete, destroy or extort an organizations or user’s systems and sensitive data.

Benefits of cyber security

• Ensures data integrity

Ensuring data integrity and being truthful and trustworthy is a crucial advantage of cyber security. Can you think of the risk of making decisions based on data that cannot be validated?

• Enables good change management

Change management organizes all changes performed in requests or systems, notifying the person in control of the change and what has been changed. Thus, the company has complete control over modifications to its platforms. In addition, when an error or threat is identified, it is also easier to locate or revert the change that caused the error.

• Optimizes the work of the IT team

With a cyber-security plan, you can reduce many risks. Thus, the IT team does not need to dedicate so much time to monitor the network and can focus its efforts on more relevant activities to the company.

• Bring a competitive advantage

All decisions made by a company can influence the public’s perception of it. Thus, a company committed to the security of its information carries the idea of ​​reliability. As a result, cyber security is a competitive advantage, mainly if data processing is related to the business’s core business. In this case, the certainty of information security is even more crucial for the customer.

• Allows employees to work safely

Without the best cyber security solutions for your organization, your employees are constantly in danger from a potential cyber-attack. If your systems, or even a person’s computers, become infected, it can hurt productivity and even force you to replace computers.

Cyber security is a well-known term, but this area still has a lot to be explored by companies. However, you can begin by establishing a security policy suited to your organization, educating recruits to reduce potential risks, and investing in systems that facilitate the management of your company’s assets.

What is cyber security mesh architecture?

One of the most significant security challenges most organizations face is security silos. Many organizations deploy various point security solutions to address specific security dangers. As a result, security architectures become complex and hard to watch and manage, leading to missed detections and delayed responses.

Gartner CSMA cyber security mesh architecture refers to security elements from multiple domains. These could be enterprise architecture, technical design, organizational structure, policy templates, process catalog, or other focus areas.”

This approach to security lends itself well to the transition to hybrid, multi-cloud environments where organizations must deploy consistent security across diverse, changing, and expanding IT environments. In addition, CSMA makes a more collaborative, flexible, and scalable approach to meeting advanced security needs by defining a framework within which discrete security solutions can work together toward common aims.

Proposed layers of cyber Security Architecture

• Security Analytics and Intelligence: Processes data from past cyber security attacks to inform future action and trigger responses.
• Distributed Identity Fabric: Decentralized identity management and directory services.
• Consolidated Policy and Posture Management: Integrates individual security tool policies into a greater unified whole.
• Consolidated Dashboards: Single pane management of the security ecosystem.

Reason Cyber Security Architecture is Important to an Organization

The first (and most obvious) benefit of improved security is the reduction of security breaches. Many attackers use more basic attack tactics that target common cyber security vulnerabilities shared by companies that haven’t done enough to build a solid architectural foundation.

Your business is likely subject to various information security standards such as HIPAA, GDPR, etc. Many data security standards require the company to maintain strong and well-managed security architecture and several specific security practices. Achieving these measures is easier if you have a robust security architecture design as an integral part of your organization. In addition, having an accurate picture of your network architecture and the many security measures put together will make it easier to determine whether you are at risk of breaking any major laws.

Gaining trust requires robust security architecture. Recognizing as a cyber-security leader can help you achieve the faith of others. This doesn’t just apply to potential clients; it also applies to possible business partners and potential collaborations that may occur in the future.

Cyber security Mesh Crucial Points

Some of the critical points and aims of CSMA include:

• Identity-centric security support: Zero Trust is an identity-centric security model focused on strong user authentication and authorization. CSMA simplifies zero-trust adoption by reducing transitions to identity-centric security.
• Improve Security Integration: Many organizations have a comprehensive array of discrete, disconnected security solutions. CSMA aims to reduce complexity and improve performance by increasing interoperability and security integration.
• Plan for the Future: Security requirements are evolving rapidly in response to changing IT infrastructure and security threats. CSMA supports future growth with plug-in APIs to more easily support expansion, customization, analysis, and support for new regulations and standards.
• Improve Solution Interoperability: Organizations often struggle with interoperability gaps between different security solutions from other vendors. CSMA seeks to close these gaps by defining a framework for cooperation and collaboration.
• Simplify Security Design: CSMA defines supportive layers defining enduring, essential security capabilities. This enables organizations to plug in solutions as needed to meet security requirements in a structured way.

Cyber security mesh companies:

• Symantec
• Rapid7
• Carbon Black
• Splunk
• Palo Alto networks
• Varonies
• Cyberark
• Fortinet
• F5 Networks
• Secureworks

Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2022

• Internet of Behaviors

The Internet of Behaviors (or IOB) means harnessing data to change behaviors. This brings together data from the digital and physical worlds to influence actions and behavior through information loops.

Gartner offers the example of how electronics can monitor the behavior of commercial vehicle drivers and how this information can be used to improve safety, driver performance, and route. The report shows the many data sources, including “commercial customer data, citizen data processed by the public sector and government agencies, social media, public domain facial recognition deployments, and location monitoring.”

The report also shows some of the complicating factors related to you, including social and ethical implications that must be considered.

• Total experience

The total experience combines customer experience, user experience, employee experience, and multi-experience to impact and transform business results. Overlaying these experiences can be enhanced with technology and allows organizations to take advantage of disruptive reasons of the current pandemic, such as distributed clients, remote work, virtual and mobile.

Gartner highlights an example of a telecom company that has turned to these experience vectors to improve satisfaction and security. The report notes, “First, he deployed a scheduling system through an existing application. When customers arrived for their appointment and were within 25 meters of the store, they received two things:

• Notification to guide them across the check-in process.
• An alert lets them know how long it would take for them to enter the store and maintain social distance.
• The company also tweaked its service to include more digital kiosks and allowed employees to use their tablets to browse customer devices without physically touching the hardware.

• computing that improves privacy

Privacy-enhancing computing focuses on three technologies that protect data as it is used. The former provides a trusted environment where sensitive data can be analyzed and processed. The second performs analysis and processing in a decentralized way. Finally, the third party encrypts data and algorithms before analysis or processing.

Gartner notes that this trend allows organizations to “collaborate on research securely across regions and with competitors, without sacrificing confidentiality. This approach was specifically designed for the growing need to share data while maintaining privacy or security.”

• Distributed cloud

The distributed cloud refers to cloud services spread across multiple physical locations, while operation, management, and development remain the duties of the public cloud provider.

By having the services of these organizations physically closer together, latency is reduced, as are data costs, helping to ensure compliance with laws that dictate that data must remain in a specific geographic region. Gartner notes that the distributed cloud is the future of cloud technology in general.

• Operations anywhere

Anywhere operations are a model emphasized due to the Covid-19 crisis and will remain after the pandemic is over. Since more business seems to be done remotely, this model makes it easier to do business on the go.

Gartner noted that this is a “digital first, remote first” model. The report notes that digital must be the standard for business. Even the remaining physical spaces must be digitally enhanced. The report shows examples such as contactless checkout at a physical store.

• Cyber security mesh

The warning landscape expands with a remote workforce, and the cyber security fabric offers enhanced security to help with this new reality. The cyber security fabric allows the identity of a person or thing to define the security perimeter. In addition, centralized policy orchestration and enforcement facilitate a more responsive security approach.

• Innovative Combinable business

Innovative combinable businesses can adapt and reorganize based on changes in the industry. The pace of change is constantly growing and will continue to drive a faster rate of digital transformation. Data must be present promptly to enable the agility needed to succeed in this environment.

Gartner says, “To do this successfully, Organizations need to gain better access to information, add information with better visibility and be able to respond to the indication of that insight quickly. This will also involve increasing autonomy and democratization across the organization, allowing parts of companies to react quickly rather than being bogged down by inefficient processes.”

• AI Engineering

Getting the most value from investments in artificial intelligence (AI) requires a strong AI engineering strategy to ensure scalability, better performance, reliability, and interpretability of AI models. Unfortunately, many companies struggle with AI projects due to management, scale, and ease of maintenance.

AI engineering makes AI part of DevOps rather than something separate from it. A more straightforward path to the value of AI projects can be gained using a multidisciplinary and multi-technical approach to AI. Gartner notes: “Due to the governance point of AI engineering, responsible AI is emerging to address issues of trust, transparency, ethics, fairness, interpretability, and compliance. It is the operationalization of AI responsibility.”

• Hyper automation

Hyper automation, the number one trend listed in Gartner’s 2020 predictions offered a year ago, notes that everything that can be automatic should be. Without hyper-automation, companies with legacy business processes that are not streamlined will suffer from costly and extensive issues due to this inefficient decision.

A Gartner report states: “Many organizations are supported by a ‘patchwork’ of technologies that are not stable, optimized, connected, clean or transparent. At the same time, the dispatch of digital or requires efficiency, speed, and democratization. Organizations that do not focus on efficiency, effectiveness, and business agility will be abandoned.”

What should cyber security issues be solved in the coming years?

Technology research firm Gartner recently presented seven security trends for this year and showed, at the heart of their model, how every organization is digitally expanding with the standardization of hybrid work and how this is making centralized cyber security control obsolete.

The extensive digitization of processes in the digital supply chain has made it a target for ransomware attacks, especially regarding vulnerabilities in embedded systems.

These variables point to a shift in IT leaders from tech specialists to corporate strategists who manage cyber risk. Gartner lists seven vulnerabilities that will dominate the digital environment this year and beyond:

• Attack surface expansion: According to Gartner, remote work will leave 18% of experts working from home.
• Identity system defense: Criminals are increasingly exploiting the misuse of credentials to access networks and achieve their goals.
• Digital Supply Chain Risks: Gartner predicts that by 2025, 45% of organizations worldwide will experience attacks on their supply chain management software.
• Vendor Consolidation: Security products are converging, and vendors are consolidating security functions onto single platforms, as well as introducing sales and licensing options to make product bundles more attractive.
• Cyber security Fabric:  It is a new concept in security architecture that allows companies to deploy and integrate security into their assets, wherever they are.
• Distributed Decisions: To support business priorities, IT leaders need to operate quickly and agile, in decentralized locations, enabling timely decisions.
• Beyond Knowledge: Progressive organizations are moving beyond outdated compliance-based awareness campaigns and investing in holistic behavior and culture change programs designed to bring about safer working methods.

What is the relationship between mesh and DevSecOps?

SecOps (or DevSecOps) professionals should be aware of this new scenario. After all, this is an approach that aligns security, development, and operations. With this, everyone shares responsibilities between the processes to obtain better performance without losing the deposit.

With the cyber security fabric, teams can invest in raising awareness and designing safer solutions. This can include protecting against hacker attacks and minimizing risks in development and operations activities.

As we have seen, the cyber security fabric is a relatively new trend but with solid potential to guarantee protection in the face of increasingly complex threats. In addition, it is in line with the future of IT, increasingly decentralized from offices.

To implement it in your business, it may be interesting to count on the support of specialized companies. Doing it either through consulting or outsourcing. So be aware of this possibility.