Page 92 - Cyber Defense eMagazine Annual RSA Edition for 2024

So, what are these common causes? I’ve previously worked in security incident response. The top three
causes which resulted in ransomware we saw were: Credential leakage, unpatched applications or
infrastructure exposed directly to the internet, and over-sharing of resources.

Cyber hygiene, or to continue our health analogy "eating your security vegetables," involves maintaining
minimum standards for security configuration and operation to reduce the chance of needing the triple
by-pass (or expensive business-impacting data loss).

While prioritizing security measures may not be as glamorous as product development, it's indispensable
for minimizing risks and fostering a resilient security posture. Collaboration between security and builder
teams is pivotal in embedding cyber hygiene practices into organizational culture. We should start to think
of cyber hygiene in the same way we do health and safety. It’s obvious that we need to make sure that
the humans in our organizations should be protected & there is legislation or governance to make sure
we operate safely. Cybersecurity is the same, we need to operate safely in the protection of our data.
Prevention is better than needing a cure!

Security teams play a crucial role in facilitating secure product development. They are not there just to
provide guidance, but to make sure that the mechanisms exist for the builder teams to build secure &
resilient systems. Much like exercise is easier when you incorporate it into your daily routine, security is
easier when it’s part of your day to day work. This means security teams & builder teams must work
together to integrate security activities seamlessly into existing workflows. This minimizes friction and can
increase business productivity because security work is not ‘extra’. For example, if builder teams don’t
get overly broad permissions but just enough access to do their job that reduces risk. If data is only
accessed by those with a business need, that reduces risk.

So, we need to not only treat the symptoms of a lack of cyber health (or hygiene), but address the root
causes. Some of this is technology choices around access, data protection and monitoring. But I would
argue that the cultural approaches to working collaboratively between security builder teams are more
important. The technology choices will evolve, but if security works to make it easier for builders to make
good (healthy) choices & builders consider security one of the quality metrics for systems then the whole
organization will be better.

About the Author
Paul Hawkins is the CISO of CipherStash, a data security company that utilizes
groundbreaking searchable encryption technology. Before CipherStash, Paul
worked at AWS as Principal in the office of the CISO, where he worked on
methods to secure customer data, running their security programs without
causing friction to their business.

Paul can be reached online (LinkedIn ) and at our company website
cipherstash.com

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