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Month: November 2021

Cybersecurity Forecasts for 2022

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Overview

Predictive and proactive IT security approaches have been adopted by cybersecurity pros in recent years. However, the pandemic and its subsequent consequences altered the IT landscape drastically. 

The Covid-19 pandemic is being reined in, but it is happening very slowly, and the impact it has created on the IT security landscape is seemingly long-lasting. 2021 is almost ready to bid adieu where breaches and ransomware attacks among other attacks increased significantly and 2022; will it be any different from a security perspective?

The drastic and frequent changes in the work environment have given sleepless nights to cybersecurity pros around the year. Too many alterations of IT security policies, unpredictable IT security budget, managing partial workforce remotely, everything has increased challenges. 

Forecasts  2022

Information Security and IT risk management have become a board-level concern for both SMEs and large organizations. The number of security breaches is rising uncontrollably, putting cybersecurity at the forefront of business decisions. 

The last three quarters witnessed several incidents of data breaches, malicious IT activities and abuses of credentials even in those industries where there were no apparent cyber threats. According to Forbes, more than 78% organizations claimed that the threat pattern has completely changed in the last two quarters, and it is worsening day by day.

So what are we expecting in 2022? After rigorous R&Ds, the global organizations are adopting more stringent governance standards, advanced security solutions and IT policies to combat more complex cyber threats. ARCON, being a thought leader in the next-gen IT security solutions, discusses forecast 2022 that will shape the future of cybersecurity. 

A] Hybrid Environment / Work From Anywhere (WFA): Since the last couple of months WFA has topped the trend. While many organizations have adopted this practice, others are in the process of adopting it. According to the latest CNBC research, over 70% of global employees are presently working remotely at least once a week. Thus, organizations are modifying their IT infrastructure so that flexibility of location cannot create any hindrance among the workforce. 

Now, what are the security challenges that organizations might face? Frankly, the list is quite long. Let’s discuss the major ones. The organizations jump into a double-faced IT security policies with stringencies in both remote and on-prem work conditions. As a result, the risk assessment teams are also considering both environments to regularize their routine risk assessment and vigilance tasks. At the infrastructure level, organizations need to work on access control policies where there has to be a rule and role-based access to the critical systems and applications. Moreover, the end-user authentication has to be very robust to evade malicious actors in the network periphery. The chances of malefactors could be higher as many organizations are banking on third-party service providers to ensure that there is no interruption in the business.

B]  Healthcare Industry to continue investing heavily in IT security: The healthcare industry consisting of both government organizations and private entities accumulate details of thousands of patients on a daily basis. The situation after the global pandemic has become more intense from a data security perspective. 

As more citizens are facing the biological hazard, they are appearing in the hospitals for medical assistance. Hence, more patients’ data are generated and stored in applications and databases. This poses a huge risk. Cyber criminals consider the healthcare industry a treasure trove to manipulate and misuse the personal identifiable information. The year 2022 is going to observe higher risks, and every healthcare organization needs to have frequent vulnerability assessments to mitigate cyber risks. According to Forrester, the healthcare industry’s investment in cybersecurity is expected to rise to a total of $125 billion between 2021 to 2025. 

C] More demand for Endpoint Security solutions: The usage of endpoints like desktops, laptops or external hard drives has increased exponentially. Simultaneously, the number of risk patterns have risen beyond control and measure. Access Control risks are increasing due to Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) and Work From Anywhere (WFA) practices. 

Since vulnerability in endpoints is one of the biggest sources of data abuse, adoption of best practices in endpoint security and management is an absolute must. 

Organizations following WFA practices are the most vulnerable to endpoint attacks. The applications that are not aligned with the role and rule-based access policies, including applications with ‘always-on’ privileges may witness the highest chances of anomalous activities. In addition, behaviour analytics around identities and scoring end-user profiles based on risks will be on the rise as businesses and organizations look to mitigate IT frauds and insider threats. 

D] Higher requirement of Cloud Security: For the IT operational convenience and scalability, and to survive in the race of digital advancement, global organizations are adopting the cloud-based IT infrastructure. Cloud computing offers a host of services that fastens the IT innovation along with the development of services and applications. 

Nevertheless, cloud environments always bear higher security risks arising from poor access controls to cloud resources. Absence of user authentication mechanism could be catastrophic when there are multiple privileged identities in the IT environment. Privileged access is one of the most vulnerable areas as organizations with distributed and shared identities access cloud resources. 

Hence, ARCON believes that Identity and Access Control technologies along with Privileged Access Management will continue to be adopted by global organizations. Security pros will not only focus on scalability of solutions but will also look to have comprehensive capabilities in the solutions. Robust authorization and authentication, identity federation, SSO, digital vaults for password randomization, granular controls, privileged access on-demand are some of the critical security features that will witness an accelerated adoption. 

E]  Compliance: Data security and privacy are two of the most important components in any IT standard and regulatory compliance. And as more and more organizations continue to adopt managed service providers, cloud computing and private clouds, security pros will have to bear more responsibility towards compliance. 

Not only that, corporate data flowing within organization’s different data centers located in different geographies will require utmost security and confidentiality. Although most IT security standards and regulations cover all aspects of data security and integrity, some central banks and regional authorities have certain additional requirements. Therefore, organizations have to be vigilant, audit-ready and stay compliant to various standards.  яндекс

Due to increasing stringency in the compliance landscape, organizations that have strong IT governance, conduct regular IT audits and follow the mandates by default will be positioned to keep non-compliance penalties at bay. Whether a MNC or SME, 2022 is expected to foster hair-split analysis of the compliance mandates.

Conclusion

Every industry in the post-pandemic era is observing drastic changes in the IT security environment. As we welcome 2022, the above forecasts give a strong indication that adequate security measures are ‘must’ for every MNC and SME. Organizations will have to realign their overall cybersecurity posture in the changing times. Stay safe and secure with ARCON! Happy 2022!

5 Reasons Why Privileged Access Management (PAM) is Essential for your Organization

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Security vulnerabilities are not limited to physical spaces in today’s world. With businesses adapting progressive technologies, the current digital ecosystem renders considerable challenges in cybersecurity. Besides developing such challenges, there is a growing change in the motives and toolkits of hackers, a more menacing threat to businesses than it was ten or twenty years ago. 

The world has become increasingly complex, and it is becoming clear that organizations need to prioritize digital security over many other aspects to prevent losses. Implementing a strong and holistic cybersecurity strategy can also provide competitive advantages in the marketplace. 

The fact is, your business needs to be aware and prepared for potential cyber vulnerabilities. If the pace of security updates is out of alignment with the adoption of new technologies, you may have a serious problem on your hands.

Cloud technology is becoming more prevalent than ever. As a result, exterior loaded security measures are out of fashion now since they are easily bypassed, sabotaging the security of business infrastructures. Moreover, supply chains are growing complex, leading to many potential entry points for hackers. The crux of the matter is the nature and motives of the hackers themselves. Earlier, hackers needed to write their codes, but now, these codes are readily available on the internet. The more user-friendly your infrastructure, the weaker it is digital malfeasance. 

Most hackers are money motivated and data is worth a hefty sum. In the unpredictable yet vital information technology sector, there is a constant need to deploy protective measures to meet cybersecurity requirements. 

 

PAM as a Solution – What is it?

The biggest cybersecurity threats lie with hackers who gain easy access to business systems and steal secure data by installing malware or making significant changes to system configurations. A person with privileged access to your system can override security settings anonymously. It is necessary to stay ahead when it comes to privileged access. This is where PAM kicks in. A PAM solution brings the potential to control and monitor privileged accounts that can potentially expose business systems and data to risk. 

Privileged Access Management combines tools and technology, securing critical information of your business. In addition, the solution is capable of enforcing privileged access policies for privileged users. 

PAM administrators can track every step undertaken by privileged users using this solution, providing them with an unalterable audit trail of their activities. In addition, a PAM solution provides effective cybersecurity planning, with the means to assign or revoke privileged access rights. Such users can set up or modify settings on every sensitive system that is equipped with security defenses. Moreover, PAM offers accurate and updated audit records, implements necessary security policies, and efficiently executes privileged access permissions. 

The sanctity of data security depends completely on the organizations’ preparedness in the areas of access control management, user monitoring, robust management of passwords, and others. A progressive implementation of enterprise-class PAM solutions can help you there.

 

Top 5 Reasons to Invest in PAM:

In a world where over 80% of data breaches involve the theft of sensitive data and privileged credentials, investing in a PAM solution should be one of your most crucial security strategies.

Implementing PAM in your business management strategy can bring comprehensive benefits. Here are the top 5 reasons investing in a PAM solution can be a terrific security option to business assets. 

  • Reduce threats to MSPs and MSSPs

MSPs are prime targets for hackers as they offer access to data and devices of multiple companies. Therefore, for such MSPs and MSSPs, there is no better time to invest in a PAM solution.

Large- and medium-sized enterprises don’t have the resources to manage their security and cloud requirements. Outsourcing these cybersecurity responsibilities to MSPs allows you to focus on core business goals. Investing in PAM software can help secure the endpoints of clients and protect passwords efficiently. In addition, ARCON | PAM offers best-in-class control features, bringing efficiency with compliance. 

  • Transparent and Frictionless – 

Cybersecurity incidents are known to generate considerable friction in boardrooms, giving rise to the need for strong and transparent security controls. A frictionless version of cybersecurity is helpful in guarding the access of illegitimate visitors, continuously monitoring such activity. With a comprehensive PAM solution, businesses can work on the principle of “least privilege”, allowing users to only access data that they need. For a hybrid working environment in the post-pandemic era, a transparent and frictionless solution such as the one ARCON | PAM offers is indeed necessary.

  • Operations & Automation-ready 

With the evolution of the IT world, there has been a rise in multi-platform environments and robotic process automation. ARCON’s next generation PAM solution has been designed to take into account the entire processes and policies of privileged access management. It is designed to be operations and automation-ready. In addition, this next-gen PAM solution considers the working processes of admins, bringing maximum transparency while removing friction, enabling transformation and scaling of your business. 

  • New Revenue Opportunities

While offering increased security, PAM solutions are also instrumental in expanding business horizons. With PAM solutions, businesses can work across hybrid environments with ease. The ARCON | PAM solution grows with business systems, transforming them at every step, allowing the business environment to evolve accordingly. With privileged access, your company can expand its existing offerings and increase its revenues. 

  • Ease of Deployment 

Unlike the first generation of PAM solutions, the modern-day solutions of privileged access management demand minimal changes to the environment of your business, its processes, and its systems, easing the overall deployment process.

With the growing availability of next-generation solutions, ARCON | PAM integrates well within your current system and applications. In addition, the ease of deployment allows businesses to gain immediate value from the solution without having to make any major changes in the existing work atmosphere. 

ARCON | PAM is built to address the evolving use case challenges regarding privileged access, offering IT security with granular controls while enforcing the principle of “least privilege” in your business. A company trusted by over 1000 global brands, ARCON provides industry-level solutions to ensure business scalability and security compliance. If you wish to invest in a PAM solution, ask an expert for the best possible security objective!

Over-Provisioning of Privilege tasks: Risks and Remedy

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Overview

Too many digital identities with elevated rights to access confidential information lead to strongest chances of credential misuse, data breach and subsequent catastrophes. About 75% of data breach incidents start with privileged account abuse across the world. Standing in the middle of growing IT infrastructure with increased adoption of cloud computing and AI/ ML based technologies, many organizations today end up adding privileges on adhoc basis to meet the IT demands. Eventually, this uncontrolled and repeated addition of privileges leads to over-provisioning of privileged identities and privileged tasks.  This in turn, invites multiple IT risks such as credential abuse, snooping, cyber espionage, data breach among many other threats. 

 

Why does it happen?

The objective behind over-provisioning is to enhance productivity and ensure uninterrupted business processes. However, if we observe closely, most organizations concentrate on business requirements and business demand before taking decisions on granting the elevated rights to systems. 

A study by Researchgate suggests that 68% organizations don’t pay heed to the crucial assessment of managing and monitoring the elevated accounts in their IT environment before adding new. Had it been assessed minutely, many cyber incidents could have been averted; specially those incidents that happen due to too many standing privileges in an enterprise network. A recent study by Oracle says, 59% surveyed organizations suffered cyber attacks due to misuse of unmonitored standing privileges. So why does it happen?

 

The perils of over-provisioning happens due to:

  • Inadequate assessment of the necessity of over-provisioning
  • Concentrating too much on the demand and ignoring the capacity
  • Irregular monitoring of the over-provisioned/ elevated accounts and inviting IT risks
  • Ignoring the Principle of ‘Least Privilege’, where end-users are allowed access only after authenticating as per the set of IT security policies

Malicious actors, compromised insiders or suspicious third parties exploit the vulnerabilities arising from excessive elevated accounts that eventually lead to credential misuse, data breaches and cyber espionage.

The Remedy for risks arising from over-provisioning 

Privileged accounts are the set of elevated accounts on the base of which over-provisioning happens in an enterprise IT environment. They manage and control highly confidential business information in databases and applications. As organizations face infrastructural expansion, the number of elevated accounts keep on adding as and when required and the risk of standing privileges arise. In the era when the world is talking about the Zero Trust security framework , having too many privileged accounts is undoubtedly a high risk factor. 

A robust Privileged Access Management (PAM) is the best remedy to address the IT risks arising from over-provisioning of critical accesses. A feature-rich solution like ARCON | Privileged Access Management (PAM) provides foolproof security from compromised insiders and third-party threats by reinforcing robust access controls to critical systems. How does it work?

  • ARCON | PAM solution lays the foundation of the principle of ‘least privilege’ that enables enterprises to enforce control over all privileged users even at a granular level. All the privileged user activities, including third party access are centrally controlled in a fine-grained manner (Granular access control). For example, configuration command profiles allows administrators to configure access permissions on Oses like Unix / databases / windows at group level or user level as per the role and responsibilities. ARCON | PAM allows IT administrators to grant privileged rights only on a ‘need-to-know’ and ‘need-to-do’ basis and mitigates risks arising from excessive privileges
  • Enhanced segregation of duties within PAM solution through Virtual Grouping ensures responsibility, accountability and IT efficiency in the privileged access environment
  • Just-In-Time (JIT) Privilege capability of ARCON | PAM allows IT administrators to grant privileged rights to the right person at the right time for the right reasons. These JIT privileges to systems are immediately revoked after the task is completed. The JIT approach insurers that organizations doesn’t end up in creating too many standing privileges
  • Privileged Elevation and Delegation Management (PEDM) of ARCON | PAM helps organizations with temporary access to the non-admin users for accessing critical systems and performing any specific task as required. These assigned access rights are revoked automatically after the task is completed.

 

Conclusion

Over-provisioning of privileged access is unavoidable in today’s organizations. IT expansion is happening everywhere in every industry. The only way out to stay resilient to cyber threats is to ensure that the access control system is reinforced with a robust PAM tool,  and the ‘Least Privilege’ principle is followed irrespective of the number of accounts. Once there is no ‘all-time’ access to the critical systems, the risks automatically subside.

Learn, Rectify & Secure

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Overview

 

Just find out the vulnerable areas and people in the IT system, misuse them one by one and compromise the confidential information. That’s the modus operandi of cyber criminals to harm the entire IT community across the globe. 

The cyber experts, however, on most occasions are a step ahead, which is why many possible cyber incidents are averted. The number of cyber attacks averted across the globe every year is almost thrice the number of cyber incidents that actually happen. It includes data breach, cyber espionage, unauthorized access, critical password compromise, insider/ third-party threats and more. 

Who is responsible for cyber incidents?

Malicious insiders, suspicious third-party users, organized cyber criminal groups are majorly responsible for cyber incidents in any organization. Internal frauds and social engineering stem mainly from those people who are privy to confidential information.

Whoever is the reason, some sort of IT infrastructure vulnerability of the organization or maybe lackadaisical attitude from the workforce builds the base of this threat possibility. Identity management and governance is one of the major sources of data assets compromise. 

So who is to be blamed for a cyber catastrophe? Definitely the organization itself, though apparently it appears to be the rogue intention of the cyber criminals. Statistically speaking, the post investigation of every incident reveals some sort of single/ multiple loophole(s) in the IT infrastructure that has (or have) driven the destruction. The most common and possible reasons behind cyber incidents include, especially identity related include:

  • Unmonitored endpoints 
  • Absence of multi-level authentication 
  • Poor/ Improper password management
  • Poor access control and management 
  • Absence of granular level monitoring
  • Too many elevated/ privileged user accounts
  • No regular reporting, audits and weak IT governance
  • Loopholes in the IT security policy
  • Non-compliance

Cause & Effect of Cyber Incidents

In 2018, one of the ex-employees of a USA-based multinational technology conglomerate inflicted malicious code in the organization’s cloud infrastructure that deleted more than 450 virtual machines used for testing several applications. As a result, almost 16,000 users could not access their accounts for more than two weeks. The organization had to cough up $ 1.4 million to audit their IT infrastructure and fix the damage. Not only that, they had to pay around $ 1 million to restitude the affected users. The investigation went for more than two years before the culprit was eventually put behind the bars. But what about the additional legal cost that the organization had to bear? What about the business prospects that were lost during the tenure? Practically, the loss is immeasurable! Парень, наконец, зашел на сайт в онлайн доступ и устроил себе страстную дрочку вечерком

There are numerous reasons behind unprecedented cyber incidents. On one hand, there are cyber crooks who always look for IT security vulnerabilities, poor access control mechanisms, non-compliance and on the other hand, there is urgency to adopt advanced technologies to survive the competition. 

The extent of need varies from industry to industry and as per geographical expansion. Today, the proliferation of cloud computing, and other advanced technologies based on AL/ ML have enticed the malicious actors to search for new loopholes and to exploit their critical assets. 

Any action leads to two types of effects – primary and secondary. Cyber incidents are no exception. While organizations strive to reinstate their business as soon as possible after an incident, there is immense pressure from the compliance, legal and cyber administration to assess the loss and thrust penalties upon them. Let us delve deep into the pattern of effects after an organization suffers a cyber attack:

Types of Primary Effect Types of Secondary Effect
Interruption in overall IT operations and subsequent business processes Assessment of the loss caused by cyber incident 
Loss of business-critical sensitive information Loss of reputation, sometimes the faceloss is so severe that the victim is unable to recover it even after several years
Financial loss, sometimes such a huge amount that organizations slip down to bankruptcy Reluctance of business partners to continue with the contracts or renew contracts; no question of finding new partners
Urgent setup of investigation committee and get in touch with cybercriminal cell Non-Compliance penalties, that might go up to a few million dollars depending on the pattern of cyber crime 
Higher Insurance Premiums 
Organizations are forced to cost-cutting where the general workforce face the wrath of termination

Positive Repercussions

We have discussed the above-mentioned primary effects in our multiple blogs earlier. Let us find out the secondary after-effects of a cyber incident. Apart from the maligning of goodwill, losing of business partnerships, non-compliance penalties, there are positive repercussions as well. It helps to learn from the mistakes, and rectify the mistakes so that future incidents can be everted. 

  • The IT infrastructure audit after a cyber incident strengthens the security measures and sometimes there are even changes of roles in the workforce to ensure end-to-end security in daily operations is maintained. 
  • An unprecedented cyber incident in an organization compels the other organizations, especially the peers to re-evaluate their IT security practices and fix the vulnerabilities as soon as possible. Definitely it narrows down the scope for cyber criminals to inflict further similar damages immediately.
  • Regulatory compliances turn more stringent and organizations as a result deploy robust security solutions like Identity and Access Management (IAM), Privileged Access Management (PAM), Endpoint Security Management and Security Compliance Management (SCM) to ensure comprehensive security. It eventually helps them to stay away from unwanted cyber incidents.

 

Conclusion

Risk Predictive IT security solutions  are the need of the hour for modern organizations. And cyber incidents,  help cyber experts to understand and analyze the threat patterns. Thus, the vulnerabilities of IT infrastructure can be addressed in a timely manner before any possible catastrophe.

Zero-Day Exploit vs. Zero-Day Vulnerability

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A “zero-day attack” refers to an attack which exploits a bug or flaw in a particular software or firmware that the vendor does not know about. Usually found in the digital content piracy space, it may appear in the area of network security as well. 

A “zero-day exploit” and a “zero-day vulnerability” are, in essence, quite different from each other. In simple terms, we can simply describe the former as the “cause” while the latter is its “effect”. 

Zero-day Vulnerability 

A zero-day vulnerability is a flaw or bug in hardware, software, or firmware that is unknown to its vendor. Security flaws that are known but haven’t been corrected yet will also sometimes be tagged as zero-day vulnerabilities.

A zero-day vulnerability generally opens up a timeline for a hacker before the developer or vendor fixes the bug. Its life cycle comprises of the following: 

  • An organization or a vendor has developed a website, system, or software, which features a severe flaw. 
  • The specific vulnerability has been discovered by the vendor and will be disclosed in the near future. 
  • The developer is trying to fix the vulnerability, which may take from around a week to several months. 
  • The developer has deployed the found fix (or patch) of the vulnerability, which has been successful in fixing the bug. 
  • The user has installed the patch on their system, which currently protects the affected device from cyber-exploits. 

Usually, the opportunity for exploitation lasts anywhere from the discovery of the flaw to the deployment of the patch. An efficient cybercriminal may find out about the flaw before the vendor themselves and take advantage of the situation before anyone knows there is a problem. 

Where Do Vulnerabilities Appear? 

A zero-day vulnerability can appear almost anywhere in your system. It might be present in the code, or an inexperienced user may create it by abusing the program. Zero-day vulnerabilities are commonly found in IT infrastructure, which tends to pass through various operators regularly.

In some cases, a vulnerability can occur due to not updating software or firmware properly. You may also create a flaw in your system by clicking on a phishing email and give hackers the opportunity to manipulate your security code. Once a vulnerability is discovered in this code, anyone can exploit it. 

Zero-Day Exploit

A zero-day exploit is the “effect” of the occurrence of a zero-day vulnerability. It is usually done using a particular technique or code to take advantage of the flaw. Essentially, a cybercriminal can exploit the issue from the get-go and gain unauthorized access to your system. 

However, searching for a particular vulnerability in a lot of code can be a difficult job. Therefore, hackers tend to use various automated tools that work on a massive scale to detect bugs in your software.

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Zero-Day Vulnerability vs. Zero-Day Exploit-The Differences 

Here are some aspects that differentiate zero-day vulnerabilities from zero-day exploits. 

  • A zero-day vulnerability is essentially a flaw in any available system or program. It does not cause any concern or damage. However, it can be further exploited by using several automated tools. This kind of attack is known as a zero-day exploit. 
  • A zero-day vulnerability can occur at almost any given time but a zero-day exploit can only occur after the flaw has been found. 
  • You can use various security technologies to prevent a zero-day exploit situation. Nevertheless, it’s almost impossible to stop zero-day vulnerability. 

How to Counter a Zero-Day Exploitation Issue? 

Here are some things that can help you counter a zero-day exploit.

  • TLS/SSL Certification: Along with various software and firmware programs, a zero-day vulnerability can occur in a website-based infrastructure as well, which can be secured by following the HTTPS protocol closely. You can perform this by installing a TLS/SSL certificate via the web hosting control panel. You will need to update and install your CMS to deploy HTTPS-based URLs and secure them thoroughly afterwards. 
  • Use End-to-End Encryption: Email is the primary method of communication between individuals in an organizational environment. Hackers create or detect vulnerability in your system by dropping a phishing mail in your inbox, which, if opened, allows them to access your system. End-to-end encryption is one way to prevent phishing. E2E makes sure that no third party can access your data and keeps it away from prying eyes. 
  • Use Security Compliance Management (SCM): An SCM is an extremely effective industry-grade security solution that can detect, evaluate, and mitigate the risk of system flaws. Essentially, it can be used to find vulnerabilities in your system and get rid of them before anyone can take advantage of them. This system can also help you in adhering to IT security standards properly. 

Why does your enterprise need ARCON | Privileged Access Management?

Conclusion 

A zero-day vulnerability is a common incident that usually gets patched up before anything unfortunate happens. Nonetheless, you should still be wary about this issue and take measurements to prevent it. Keep your systems updated regularly, use different security protocols, and talk with a security expert to learn other ways of protecting your network or system from exploitation. Good luck!