Page 52 - Cyber Warnings

everything is up to date and as effective as possible. In many cases, I’ve evaluated a
company’s security process and found that policies were set up as much as two years
prior without any thought to updating it.

Once a team is in place, originations should plan to leverage a comprehensive
monitoring toolset that can outline a baseline of performance across systems, networks,
and especially databases, which are particularly vulnerable to attacks.

Having a fundamental understanding of what typical performance looks like for these
pieces of infrastructure will normalize the security expertise of a team by providing a
reference point to check when something seems wrong.

The security team can then execute on a pre-determined response plan in order to
quickly and effectively remediate.

3. Look to free resources. These days, there is no limit to the amount of free and readily
available resources one can leverage. The National Vulnerability Database and the
Common Vulnerabilities and Exposure (CVE) database, for example, provide real-time
updates on current and potential future security threats, their corresponding level of
seriousness and suggestions for remediation that IT professionals can use to inform the
updates and patches they roll out.

No one wants to be vulnerable due to Security 101 mistakes, such as allowing users to
keep default settings and passwords, which leaves the door open to much more serious
breaches.

Ultimately, IT departments should take advantage of these resources to stay on top of
security trends and leverage their alerting features to best maintain their organization’s
security and address any vulnerabilities immediately.

4. Save end-users from themselves. End-user education is a sorely underutilized method
of further securing an organization’s data.

The numbers consistently show that a majority of attacks actually originate inside the
organization, often stemming from things like an employee falling victim to a phishing
scheme that introduces malware on the network, DDoS attacks, or accidental end-user
errors that stem from an inadequate understanding of potential security threats.

Of course, end-users don’t want or mean to cause problems, they just don’t always
understand what they’re doing and how one action today can cause trouble tomorrow,
the next day, or even a month from now.

52 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine November 2016 Edition
Copyright © Cyber Defense Magazine, All rights reserved worldwide