Page 202 - Cyber Defense eMagazine Special RSA Conference Annual Edition for 2022

There’s where automated remediation steps in.

As its name suggests, automatic remediation manages fixes and upgrades without human intervention.
Organizations can establish the automated remediation rules their system follows, instructing the tool to
disable or uninstall low security scored apps when users ignore a warning email or remove risky
connection between applications (app2app), for example.

Remediation is always on, applying to new apps and new users, even with the decentralized nature of
SaaS projects. You don’t have to worry about adding these new apps and users to the remediation
process thanks to automated remediation.

The Need for Automatic Remediation

For security teams, automatic remediation provides a valuable service. Starting with increased visibility
and analysis, a trusted automated remediation solution can address newly identified issues with minimal
human interaction. Not only does it improve accuracy – human error is always a present cybersecurity
concern – but it can free cyber teams to focus on more important tasks.

Automatic remediation aims to provide an additional layer of security. While technology teams should not
see it as an exemption to perform updates and not follow security best practices, the automation process
can reduce some of the overall risks.

Security teams already find themselves pulled thin, juggling long-term planning and investments with
day-to-day needs. Automatic remediation can remove some of that daily burden. This is critical as
organizations continue to see the use of SaaS applications grow.

As companies continue to scale, automatic remediation is not just needed but essential. There are simply
too many applications and security events for manual remediation to be effective, something made even
more difficult with the lack of security professionals in the job market.

A Growing Attack Surface

The use of authorized SaaS applications and unauthorized shadow IT create more avenues for hackers
to gain entry into your larger enterprise. With these doorways, hackers can navigate your network to find
valuable information, such as your company’s financial records, intellectual property, or the personally
identifiable information (PII) of customers and employees.

As this study shows, PII has grown 20-fold in companies that use SaaS applications. Managing this
growing attack surface, which has expanded with increased remote work efforts as employees work on
different networks, presents an enormous challenge. Even the best trained and dedicated security teams
will struggle to keep pace.

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