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The Role of IAM in Compliance And Regulatory Requirements

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Businesses today face an ever-growing array of compliance and regulatory challenges. From data protection laws to industry-specific regulations, they must navigate a complex landscape to ensure they meet legal and ethical standards. One crucial tool in managing these challenges is Identity and Access Management (IAM). IAM systems are essential for maintaining secure, compliant, and efficient operations.

Understanding IAM and Its Importance

Identity and Access Management (IAM) refers to the processes and technologies used to manage digital identities and control access to resources within an organisation. IAM solutions encompass various functions, including user authentication, authorisation, and the management of user identities across multiple systems. The primary goal of IAM is to ensure that only authorised individuals can access specific resources and data, thereby safeguarding sensitive information and maintaining operational security.

Key Functions of IAM in Compliance

  1. User Authentication and Authorisation: At the heart of IAM is the ability to verify the identity of users and determine their access rights. Authentication involves confirming that a user is who they claim to be, typically through credentials such as passwords or biometric data. Authorization, on the other hand, involves defining and enforcing what resources a user can access based on their role and permissions. By establishing robust authentication and authorisation mechanisms, IAM systems help companies prevent unauthorised access to sensitive information and ensure compliance with access control regulations.
  2. Access Control Policies: IAM systems support the creation and enforcement of access control policies, which are crucial for regulatory compliance. These policies define who can access which resources and under what conditions. By implementing role-based access controls (RBAC), attribute-based access controls (ABAC), and other policy frameworks, IAM systems enable organizations to enforce compliance with regulations that require specific access controls for different types of data and resources.
  3. Audit and Reporting: Comprehensive auditing and reporting capabilities are essential for demonstrating compliance with regulatory requirements. Identity and Access Management solutions provide detailed logs of user activities, including login attempts, access requests, and changes to permissions. These logs can be reviewed during audits to verify that access controls are being enforced and that there are no violations of regulatory requirements.
  4. User Lifecycle Management: Effective IAM systems support the entire lifecycle of user identities, from creation and maintenance to deactivation. By managing user accounts and permissions throughout their lifecycle, Identity and Access Management solutions help to ensure that access rights are always appropriate, thereby supporting compliance with regulations that mandate the periodic review of access controls and the removal of access for terminated employees.
  5. Data Protection: IAM systems play a significant role in data protection by implementing measures such as data encryption and secure authentication methods. These help enterprises comply with data protection regulations that require the safeguarding of sensitive information from unauthorised access and breaches.

Suraksha Identity & Access Management Solutions

When it comes to selecting an IAM solution that effectively meets compliance and regulatory requirements, Suraksha’s Identity & Access Management solutions emerge as a premier choice for businesses. Suraksha offers a range of features and benefits that make their IAM solutions a standout option for companies seeking to streamline operations and enhance security.

One of the key advantages of Suraksha’s IAM solutions is seamless multi-browser support without the need for additional plug-ins. This feature ensures that users can access IAM functionalities across various web browsers without encountering compatibility issues, which simplifies the user experience and supports efficient operations.

In addition, Suraksha provides flexible pricing options with a variety of devices and user slabs. This flexibility allows companies to select a plan that aligns with their specific needs and budget, ensuring that they receive optimal value while fulfilling regulatory requirements.

Suraksha also offers a cloud-based Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) subscription that integrates security and networking into a unified service. This modern approach to secure access enables organisations to enforce robust security policies and manage user access effectively in a cloud environment, which is increasingly crucial for compliance with data protection regulations.

Furthermore, Suraksha’s IAM solutions are built upon a comprehensive framework for policy-driven authentication and authorisation. This framework allows organizations to define and enforce access controls through detailed policies and technologies, ensuring that only authorised users can access resources and adhere to regulatory standards. By choosing Suraksha’s Identity & Access Management solutions, companies can benefit from a robust and flexible IAM system designed to meet compliance and regulatory requirements efficiently. With features such as multi-browser support, flexible pricing, cloud-based SASE solutions, and a strong policy-driven framework, Suraksha provides a comprehensive IAM solution that helps businesses maintain security, meet compliance obligations, and achieve their operational goals.

Choosing The Right Managed Detection and Response Service Provider For Your Business

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Safeguarding business endpoints from cyber threats is more critical than ever. Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solutions have become essential for companies protecting their digital assets. With the EDR market expected to reach $12.39 billion by 2029 (source: Mordor Intelligence), choosing the right managed EDR solution provider is crucial. This article highlights the key considerations for selecting the right Managed Detection and Response (MDR) service provider.

Understanding Endpoint Detection and Response
Endpoint Detection and Response integrates automated response and analysis with real-time monitoring and data collection from endpoints. EDR solutions are designed to detect, investigate, and mitigate suspicious activities and incidents on endpoints, such as laptops, desktops, and servers.

When evaluating EDR solutions, it’s essential to look for features that align with your business needs. Here are some necessary factors to consider:
• Real-time Threat Detection
An effective EDR solution should provide real-time detection of advanced threats, allowing your security team to respond swiftly and minimise potential damage. This feature is crucial in identifying and mitigating threats before they can cause significant harm to your organization.
• Continuous Endpoint Visibility
Continuous monitoring of endpoint activities ensures that your security team is always aware of what’s happening across your network. This visibility is vital for identifying unusual patterns and behaviors that may indicate a security breach.
• Automated Response Actions
Automation in threat response helps streamline remediation processes, reducing the need for manual intervention. Automated actions can quickly isolate affected endpoints, remove malicious files, and restore systems to a secure state, enhancing the overall efficiency of your security operations.
• Behavioural Analytics
Advanced EDR solutions utilise behavioural analytics to detect anomalies and potential security breaches. By analysing patterns and behaviours, these solutions can identify threats that traditional security measures might miss.
• Threat Intelligence Integration
External threat intelligence feeds keep EDR solution updated on the most recent threats. This feature ensures that security measures are proactive and informed by the current threat landscape.
• Incident Response Tools
Comprehensive incident response tools are essential for effective investigation and remediation of security incidents. These tools should empower your security team with the capabilities needed to thoroughly analyse and address threats.

Managed EDR Solutions
Managed EDR solutions offer the expertise and resources of a dedicated security team, providing continuous monitoring, threat detection, and incident response. This approach is particularly beneficial for businesses with limited internal security resources or those seeking to enhance their existing security posture.

Benefits of Managed EDR Solutions
• Expertise and Experience
Managed EDR providers bring a wealth of expertise and experience in handling various cybersecurity threats. Their specialised knowledge ensures that the business is protected by the latest and most effective security measures.
• Cost-Effective
Outsourcing your EDR needs to a managed service provider can be more cost-effective than setting up and maintaining an in-house security team. Managed solutions eliminate the need for significant upfront investments in technology and personnel.
• Continuous Monitoring
Managed EDR providers offer around-the-clock monitoring, ensuring that threats are detected and addressed promptly, regardless of when they occur. This continuous vigilance is crucial for maintaining a robust security posture.

Why Suraksha’s EDR Services?

Suraksha’s Managed EEDR offers advanced cybersecurity solutions designed to provide real-time visibility into endpoint activities. It ensures comprehensive endpoint security through a combination of cutting-edge technology and expert management.
• Real-time Threat Detection and Response
Suraksha’s EDR services swiftly identify and respond to advanced threats. This proactive approach helps reduce the dwell time of threats, ensuring that security incidents are addressed before they can escalate.
• Continuous Endpoint Visibility and Automated Response
With continuous monitoring, Suraksha provides real-time awareness of endpoint activities, ensuring that any unusual patterns or behaviors are promptly detected. Their automated response actions streamline threat remediation, reducing the need for manual intervention.
• Advanced Features and Scalability
Suraksha’s EDR services offer advanced features such as behavioural analytics, threat intelligence integration, and comprehensive incident response tools. Their user-friendly interface ensures easy management and monitoring, while the scalability of their solutions allows your business to adapt to evolving security needs.
• Comprehensive Coverage and Support
Suraksha extends its protection to endpoints in cloud environments, ensuring comprehensive coverage. Their solutions also include proactive threat hunting capabilities, compliance assurance, and zero-day threat protection.

In conclusion, selecting the right managed EDR solution provider is crucial for maintaining a robust cybersecurity posture. Suraksha’s EDR services offer advanced, real-time endpoint protection, ensuring that your business is safeguarded against the latest threats.

How Managed Detection and Response Services Enhance Threat Detection and Incident Response

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From malware and ransomware attacks to targeted phishing campaigns and insider threats, the digital landscape is rife with potential risks that can compromise sensitive data and disrupt operations. With cyber-attacks becoming increasingly frequent and sophisticated, organisations face a daunting challenge in defending against these evolving threats. To address these concerns, many organisations are turning to Managed Detection and Response services like Cyber Security Operations Center.

A Security Operations Center (SOC) is a centralised function within an organisation that employs people, processes, and technology to continuously safeguard its IT infrastructure. The SOC team monitors for and responds to cyber threats, acting as the organisation’s cybersecurity command center. They analyse data from various sources, investigate incidents, and work to prevent breaches and mitigate damage.

Recognising the challenges of building and maintaining an in-house SOC, many organisations leverage Security Operations Center as a Service (SOCaaS). This cloud-based model offers a subscription service where a third-party provider assumes responsibility for managing a virtual SOC. The provider employs security analysts to monitor network, detect threats, investigate incidents, and provide 24/7 support. SOCaaS delivers the benefits of a skilled security team without the capital and operational expenses of an internal SOC.

Exploring the Benefits of CSOC as a Service

1. Access to Expertise: Leverage a Team of Security Professionals

Building a team of skilled security analysts is a major hurdle for many organisations. The cybersecurity talent pool is limited, and competition for qualified professionals is fierce. This can lead to difficulties in finding and retaining the right people to staff your SOC.

SOCaaS providers address this challenge by employing a team of experienced security analysts. These professionals have extensive knowledge of:

  • Threat Detection: They understand the latest cyber threats and can identify suspicious activity within your network.
  • Incident Response: They have the skills to investigate and contain security incidents, minimizing damage and downtime.
  • Security Best Practices: They can advise you on best practices for hardening your defenses and improving your overall security posture.

By leveraging SOCaaS, you gain access to this expertise without the burden of recruiting, training, and managing your own security team. This allows your internal IT staff to focus on their core competencies.

2. Cost-Effectiveness: Reduced Upfront Investment and Streamlined Operations

Building an in-house SOC requires significant upfront investment. This includes Firewalls, intrusion detection/prevention systems (IDS/IPS), security information and event management (SIEM) platforms, and endpoint protection software are just some of the essential tools needed. These can be expensive to acquire and maintain. Recruiting, training, and retaining skilled security analysts is a major challenge in today’s cybersecurity talent shortage.

Security tools require constant updates and patches to stay effective against evolving threats. Add to this the ongoing maintenance of the entire SOC infrastructure, which adds to the operational cost. SOCaaS eliminates these costs. You pay a predictable monthly subscription fee that covers the security team, tools, infrastructure, and ongoing maintenance. This allows you to access robust cybersecurity capabilities without a significant upfront financial burden.

3. Scalability: Adapting to Your Security Needs as Your Business Evolves

An organisation’s security needs can change rapidly. As your business grows, you may need to expand your network footprint, add new devices and applications, or acquire new data. Conversely, downsizing may require scaling back your security resources.

An in-house SOC can struggle to adapt to these changes. Adding staff and tools can be expensive and time-consuming, while downsizing existing infrastructure can be disruptive and complex. SOCaaS offers a more flexible solution. Most providers allow you to scale your security posture up or down as needed. This could involve adjusting the number of analysts monitoring your network, adding specific threat intelligence feeds, or tailoring the service to address new security challenges.

4. 24/7 Monitoring: Uninterrupted Vigilance Against Cyber Threats

Cyber threats don’t operate on a standard work schedule. Attackers can launch attacks at any time, day or night. Maintaining 24/7 monitoring with an in-house SOC can be difficult and resource-intensive.

SOCaaS providers offer continuous monitoring of your network. Their security analysts work around the clock to identify potential threats, investigate suspicious activity, and respond to incidents as they occur. This ensures your organisation is protected even when your internal IT staff is unavailable.

5. Improved Efficiency: Focus on Core Tasks with Reduced False Positives

Security analysts often face a deluge of alerts from security tools. Sorting through these alerts to identify genuine threats can be time-consuming and prone to human error. Additionally, many tools generate false positives, further distracting analysts from legitimate security concerns.

SOCaaS providers use advanced tools and automation to analyse data and prioritise alerts. These tools can:

  • Correlate Data from Multiple Sources: Events from various network devices and logs are analysed together to identify patterns and anomalies that might indicate a real threat.
  • Machine Learning: Machine learning algorithms can be trained to differentiate between valid threats and false positives, significantly reducing the number of alerts analysts need to review.

This automation frees up your internal IT staff to focus on other critical tasks, such as patch management, user awareness training, and vulnerability assessments. Overall, the Managed Detection and Response service helps organisations achieve better security outcomes with increased efficiency.

Suraksha’s Smart Cyber Security Operations Center For Enhanced Protection Suraksha’s Smart Cyber Security Operations Center provides comprehensive safeguarding for IT infrastructure. It offers Event Analytics (SIEM) for real-time threat detection and Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) to streamline incident response processes effectively.

Advanced Threat Intelligence capabilities provide actionable insights for proactive threat mitigation and rapid incident response. Additionally, XDR Connect seamlessly integrates QRadar SIEM with extended detection and response (XDR) solutions, enhancing the ability to detect and respond to sophisticated threats across the entire environment. Suraksha’s Smart Cyber Security Operations Center is a trusted ally in safeguarding digital assets and ensuring continuous protection against evolving cyber threats.

Exploring The Risks Of Unauthorised Access: How Privileged Access Management Can Mitigate Security Threats

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With the rising instances of cyber threats, unauthorised access to critical systems and data has become a top concern for organisations. Businesses are increasingly turning to Privileged Access Management solutions as a proactive measure to strengthen their security posture. Privileged accounts typically hold elevated permissions, granting users extensive control over IT resources. Consequently, if these credentials fall into the wrong hands, they can be exploited to compromise sensitive data, disrupt operations, or launch malicious attacks.

Cybercriminals target privileged accounts to access critical assets. Whether through phishing schemes, malware infiltration, or brute force attacks, adversaries are relentless in their pursuit of exploiting vulnerabilities within a company’s security infrastructure. Once inside, they can exfiltrate sensitive information, manipulate data, or install malware to perpetrate further harm. Moreover, unauthorised access poses a significant threat to regulatory compliance. Industries are required to adhere to strict regulations governing data privacy. Failure to secure privileged access can result in non-compliance penalties, fines, and legal sanctions.

The Role of Privileged Access Management

Privileged Access Management (PAM) serves as a critical defense mechanism against these risks by tightly controlling and monitoring access to privileged accounts. By implementing PAM solutions, companies can enforce least privilege principles, ensuring that users only have access to the resources necessary to perform their roles. This minimises the attack surface and mitigates the risk of unauthorised access. Integrating PAM with comprehensive cyber security services enhances the organisation’s ability to detect, prevent, and respond to security threats.

Furthermore, PAM solutions offer robust authentication mechanisms, such as multi-factor authentication (MFA) and biometric verification, to enhance security. These additional layers of authentication significantly reduce the likelihood of unauthorised users gaining access to privileged accounts, even in the event of credential compromise. Another key component of PAM is session monitoring and recording. PAM solutions enable companies to track and audit privileged user activities in real-time, providing visibility into who accessed what resources and when. This granular level of insight not only deters malicious behavior but also facilitates compliance with regulatory requirements by maintaining comprehensive audit trails.

PAM solutions incorporate privileged threat analytics, a crucial cybersecurity solution, to detect anomalous behaviour and potential security incidents. By leveraging machine learning algorithms, these solutions can identify deviations from normal user behaviour patterns, such as unusual login times or access attempts, and raise alerts for further investigation.

Privileged Access Management with Suraksha: Enhancing Security and Operational Efficiency

Suraksha’s PAM solution offers a comprehensive suite of features designed to enhance security and streamline operations across organizations. Organisations can deploy password management and session management capabilities in minutes, facilitating seamless integration of workloads from various cloud environments. The platform ensures password security through centralised control and management, empowering all teams—from vendors to application users—with single sign-on functionality and secure access to resources. By enabling controlled sessions and password management, Suraksha mitigates the risks associated with unauthorized access and enhances data protection.

Suraksha drives operational efficiency through automation, resource optimisation, and centralized management. By simplifying audit and reporting processes, organizations gain greater visibility and control over their privileged access environment, reducing administrative overhead and improving efficiency.

The solution offers features to safeguard data from targeted attacks, insider threats, and password leakage issues. With internal controls, companies can maintain compliance with regulations such as RBI, IRDA, SEBI, and more. Unified privileged access, remote access, and endpoint privileged management capabilities provide unlimited possibilities for secure access management. High-speed deployment capabilities ensure protection from day one, while increased automation enhances efficiency, enabling automated access management without human intervention.

With the Opex model, companies benefit from predictable costs without additional budget allocation for infrastructure, maintenance, updates, or resources. Suraksha’s robustness and scalability are bolstered by deep Active Directory integration capabilities, allowing seamless collaboration with assets and users managed via Active Directory. Suraksha’s PAM solution offers flexible deployment, making it easier for organisations to adapt to evolving business needs while maintaining operational efficiency. With its comprehensive feature set and user-friendly interface, Suraksha is the preferred choice for organisations seeking to enhance security, streamline operations, and achieve compliance in today’s dynamic business environment.

Protect Your Data, Protect Your Business: Importance of A Data-Centric Security Strategy

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Data is the heart of every business. It is, therefore, crucial to keep it from falling into the wrong hands. Recent headlines, unfortunately, suggest an increase in cases of sensitive data of companies getting stolen. One of the factors contributing to this trend is the rising number of endpoints employees use for their work. Endpoint devices like laptops, smartphones, tablets, etc. connect to the corporate network. The theft or loss of any endpoint could lead to financial loss and reputational damage. Therefore, it’s important to implement necessary security measures to prevent or mitigate potential damage.

What Is Data-Centric Security?

Data-centric security focuses on protecting sensitive data instead of the systems that store it. Here, data is classified based on its sensitivity, and security controls are applied to the data rather than the systems that handle it. This model allows companies to secure their sensitive data irrespective of where it’s stored or how it is accessed.

Importance Of Data-Centric Security Strategy In Today’s Digital Landscape

Cyber-attacks are a threat to businesses of all sizes. Given that companies collect and process vast amounts of data, it is vital to protect sensitive customer information, financial records, and intellectual property. Nowadays, such data is stored and accessed through various endpoints. By applying a data-centric security strategy, organisations can mitigate the risk of cyber-attacks. This involves having security controls in place to protect against cyber threats, as well as backup solutions to ensure that data can be quickly restored in case of a cyberattack.

Data breaches can put a company’s reputation in ruin. A single data breach can result in significant financial losses, legal liabilities, and loss of customer trust. According to Statista, the global average cost per data breach, as of 2022, stood at $4.35 million (Rs. 357.6 million), a rise from $4.24 million (Rs. 348.5 million) in the previous year. A data-centric security strategy can help prevent data breaches by using data encryption, access control, and data loss prevention techniques. If an endpoint is compromised, the backup and recovery solution, which is part of the data-centric security strategy, ensures that the data is secure and protected.

Devising A Data-Centric Security Framework

Key elements essential to a solid data-centric security strategy framework include:

  1. Data classification: Data should be categorised as per its sensitivity and use case. It involves identifying the kinds of data after data discovery and assigning classification labels to that data. This is a vital part of the framework because different forms of data need different approaches and levels of protection.
  2. Access control: After the data is classified, access controls can be put to ensure that only authorised personnel can access it. This includes authentication and authorisation mechanisms like role-based access control and multi-factor authentication (MFA). Data must be assigned on an as-required basis. This ensures users are only exposed to the data they require for undertaking their tasks and nothing beyond it.
  3. Encryption: Encryption protects data in transit and at rest. So, even if an attacker gains access to the data, the individual is not able to read it without the decryption key.
  4. Data monitoring and auditing: With data monitoring tools, security teams can quickly detect any suspicious activities. Auditing tools can track who gained access to what data, allowing enterprises to investigate incidents and ensure compliance with regulations.

Transform Endpoint Backup And Recovery Into Data-Centric Strategy

A study by the Ponemon Institute, published in January 2020, found that 68% of respondents (IT security professionals) reported that their enterprise experienced one or more endpoint attacks that compromised data assets and/or IT infrastructure. Endpoint devices are often used by employees to create and access company data, making them a crucial part of an organisation’s data infrastructure. However, these devices are also highly susceptible to data loss due to hardware failures, software errors, cyberattacks, and user errors.

Enterprise Endpoint Backup Solutions help organisations address these risks by providing automated, real-time backup and recovery of endpoint data. This ensures that important data is protected against loss or corruption and it’s quickly restored in the event of a disaster or outage. Yotta Safe offers data protection solutions with features such as remote data wiping, seamless technology migration, compliance management, and ransomware protection. With Yotta Safe, users can benefit from better control and visibility over their data, simplified technology migrations, compliance with legal requirements, and protection against cyber threats.

Setup A Disaster Recovery Plan

A Disaster Recovery Plan is essential to any comprehensive data-centric security strategy. It lays down the procedures for responding to an attack, thereby minimising its effect, and quickly recovering from the damage caused.

To set up a disaster recovery plan, the enterprise must identify its critical data. This will help prioritise which data requires immediate recovery. Next, the recovery objectives should be established, based on which, a recovery plan is created. The procedures for backup and restoration of critical data must be included. It’s important to regularly test and update the disaster recovery plan to ensure that it’s effective and relevant.

Prioritise Data-Centric Security In Your Enterprise

A data-centric security strategy is important for any company that wants to protect its sensitive data, adhere to regulations, reduce downtime, and improve productivity. While creating a framework for this strategy, it is wise to include enterprise endpoint backup solutions for ensuring complete protection of the critical data on endpoints. Creating a disaster recovery plan is useful as it provides a roadmap for restoring data to its pre-attack state. It helps minimise data loss by outlining procedures for data backup, restoration, and system recovery.

A data-centric security strategy, in today’s landscape is no longer an option but a must for organisations to secure their sensitive information from cyber attackers. With the volume of data continuing to grow, the need for a data-centric security strategy is only going to increase. To stay ahead, organisations need to continuously improve their security measures and invest in the latest cybersecurity solutions.

How A CSOC Can Help Keep Your Enterprise Safe from Cyber Risks

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Cyber threats come in various forms, each bringing its own magnitude of impact. These threats can include anything from malware, ransomware to phishing attacks, DDoS and other kinds of cyberattacks that can potentially bring down entire networks. To combat these, businesses are increasingly investing in Cyber Security Operations Center (CSOC), which are dedicated to detecting and responding effectively to such risks.

What Is A CSOC?
A Cyber Security Operations Center is a service that monitors, detects, and responds to cyber threats. The division consists of cybersecurity experts, who have experience in incident response, vulnerability assessment, threat intelligence, and penetration testing. It is essentially a centralised unit that ensures the security of an enterprise’s information systems and networks.

One of the primary roles of CSOC is to provide the enterprise with a complete view of its security posture. It achieves this by monitoring and analysing various data sources like network traffic, security alerts and system logs. The unit must be equipped with advanced tools and technologies to automate security processes, detect and swiftly respond to cyber risks.

Who Is Part Of The CSOC Team?
The Cyber Security Operations Center usually constitutes highly-skilled professionals with domain expertise in various areas of cybersecurity. It can include incident responders, security analysts, network engineers, threat hunters, malware analysts, and forensic investigators. These are just some of the roles that may be part of a CSOC team. It can vary based on the size and needs of a company’s security needs.

The CSOC team may collaborate with law enforcement agencies to share threat intelligence and stay informed about recent cyber risks. Overall, the Cyber Security Operations Center plays an important role in safeguarding a company’s assets, infrastructure, and reputation from cyber threats.

Why Do Enterprises Need A CSOC?

  1. Risk Detection and Response: CSOC is tasked with monitoring the company’s digital environment to identify potential threats and swiftly respond to incidents, should any occur. These efforts keep data breaches, cyberattacks, and other security incidents at bay.
  2. Enhanced Incident Management: An organisation can manage security incidents more efficiently with a CSOC team. With a central point of contact for incident reporting and response, incidents can get tracked, documented, and resolved in a consistent manner. Additionally, CSOC can help enterprises create an incident response plan, aligning it with the mandates of CERT-In.
  3. Continuous Monitoring: CSOC monitors a company’s digital environment 24×7. This allows for early detection of threats and shortens the time taken to respond to incidents. This helps identify breaches or violations of CERT-In mandates in real-time, thereby enabling a prompt response.
  4. Compliance Requirements: Companies are often subject to compliance and regulations that require them to have a robust security system. CSOC can conduct regular audits to ensure the organisation complies with CERT-In mandates.

Challenges Of Building Your Own Security Operations Center (SOC)

  1. Expertise and skills gap: To create a successful SOC, you need a team of highly competent individuals that can handle a variety of security tasks, including threat detection, incident response, and vulnerability management. However, it can be daunting to find qualified cyber security personnel with a diverse range of expertise.
  2. Cost and resource allocation: Significant up-front costs, such as infrastructure setup, hardware, software, and ongoing maintenance costs, are involved in setting up an internal SOC. Organisations must also make investments in ongoing training programmes to keep their SOC staff up-to-date on the most recent developments in security trends and technologies.
  3. 24/7 monitoring: Cyberattacks can happen at any time – they are not time-bound. Operating and budgetary challenges can arise when establishing an internal SOC that is staffed 24/7. Significant effort and resources are needed to manage shift schedules, ensure the availability of qualified staff, and maintain constant surveillance.

Building a SOC in-house may seem like a good idea, but enterprises frequently struggle with issues related to knowledge, expense, resources, and scalability. By choosing a managed CSOC, you can access a team of knowledgeable experts, cost-effective solutions, round-the-clock monitoring, cutting-edge technology, and scalability.

How A Managed CSOC Can Benefit Your Enterprise
A managed CSOC is a third-party service that provides organisations with a comprehensive approach to managing and monitoring their cybersecurity defenses. The third-party service provider assumes responsibility for monitoring and responding to cybersecurity threats, freeing up a company’s internal IT resources to focus on their core business activities.

The managed CSOC typically operates round-the-clock, monitoring an organisation’s networks and systems for suspicious activities, anomalies, and potential threats. They use advanced security tools, including threat intelligence feeds, advanced analytics, and machine learning algorithms to respond to cybersecurity incidents. They perform vulnerability scanning and penetration testing to identify potential weaknesses in cybersecurity defenses. The managed CSOC team works closely with an enterprise’s IT team to ensure that any vulnerabilities or issues are addressed promptly.

The biggest advantage of managed CSOC, a part of cybersecurity solutions, is the cost savings. An in-house CSOC can be costly, given that major investments must be made in infrastructure and technology. By outsourcing to a third-party provider, enterprises can significantly reduce these costs. They can instead use their resources for other critical business functions. Additionally, a managed CSOC can improve businesses’ security posture, as it can be challenging for enterprises to keep pace with the latest developments in cybersecurity. Third-party providers have access to recent threat intelligence and tools, and they can aid with quickly mitigating potential security risks. Moreover, managed CSOC provides enterprises with access to expertise. By outsourcing, companies can tap into a pool of experts possessing a wide range of skills and domain knowledge.

Yotta Smart CSOC provides Managed Detection & Response (MDR) service to protect enterprises from evolving cyber threats. It delivers holistic protection to an enterprise’s IT infrastructure, ensuring complete security for new-age workloads. Yotta Smart CSOC assures organisations of proactive threat hunting, vulnerability scanning, improved detection and response time, and an uptime guarantee of a Tier IV data center. Being a SaaS-based solution provided on public and private cloud, among others, it serves the cybersecurity needs of enterprises with varied infrastructure setups.

Stay Ahead Of Cyber Threats With A CSOC

The consequences from ever-evolving cyber threats can be severe. Gartner predicts that by 2025, 30% of critical infrastructure enterprises will suffer a security breach, causing a halt in the operations or mission-critical cyber-physical systems. Implementing a managed CSOC can enhance an enterprise’s cybersecurity posture significantly. Enterprises are better prepared to proactively defend against cyber risks and protect their assets and brand image. In today’s time, a managed CSOC is not just a smart business decision, but also a necessary one.

Getting Started With WAAP: Benefits, Deployment & Best Practices

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As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, web applications and application programming interfaces (APIs) have become central to enterprise operations. The increase in their uptake has, unfortunately, made them susceptible to cyber threats. Web applications, due to their constant availability for uninterrupted service provision, are highly vulnerable to hacking attempts. Likewise, according to a report by Marsh McLennan, the average annual API-related total global cyber loss totalled US$ 41-75 billion (Rs. 3.3 – 6.1 trillion).

WAAP Solutions offer a robust and user-friendly platform for controlling and automating a company’s operations. In this article, we will look at their benefits and the best practices for implementing and utilising them.

The Evolution Of WAAP

Web Application and API Protection (WAAP) is an anti-attack security solution. Businesses can protect their web applications and APIs against widespread threats with WAAP’s configurable security rules.

Over the years, Web Application and API Protection has evolved as the premier solution for businesses to protect their online applications. With a WAAP solution, businesses can safeguard customer information and prevent targeted attacks on their online applications. It was initially developed to aid companies in preventing unwanted access to their websites by keeping intruders at bay. Today, WAAP-as-a-service is used to prevent data leakage and ensure the safety of online APIs.

Benefits Of Using WAAP-As-A-Service For Businesses

  • Improved Scalability: Web Application and API Protection-as-a-service can help enterprises expand their business without worrying about cyber-attacks and data breaches. It also offers enterprises scalability and flexibility to accommodate evolving business needs as it can be implemented in different settings, including on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments.
  • Enhanced Security: WAAP-as-a-service also offers the added advantage of making a company more secure. When risks like data theft and hacker intrusion become increasingly challenging for businesses, WAAP-as-a-service can come to their rescue. Protecting your company from these dangers will lessen the likelihood of private data being stolen or misused.
  • Cost Savings: Businesses can save big on security-related expenditures like personnel and software by switching to WAAP-as-a-service. In addition, organisations can save costs by preventing data breaches by encrypting important information.

Factors To Consider When Selecting A WAAP Solution

  • Technology: Technology is a significant factor to consider when looking for a Web Application and API Protection solution. Look for the most advanced technology, and it should be such that it can integrate with the existing technology infrastructure.
  • Performance: In the case of applications that need both high throughput and low latency, a WAAP solution with purpose-built hardware may be the best option. Scalability also becomes a critical factor if the size or complexity of the application is likely to grow over time.
  • Support: Features, system compatibility, and service quality are important factors when deciding on your organisation’s Web Application and API Protection solution. Businesses should also think about whether they require a particular feature or might get by with a cheaper alternative.
  • Cost: When deciding on a WAAP solution, cost is one of the most critical factors. It is essential to locate a remedy that is both practical and within your price range. The cost of licensing, upgrades, and maintenance should be included.
  • Peace of Mind: The degree of worry-free operation is crucial in selecting a WAAP solution. Enterprises must ensure they can manage their most important tasks without worrying or stressing the IT team. It implies that personnel won’t have to fret about their information being stolen or compromised. All user information in WAAP-as-a-service is encrypted and stored safely. It assures that the data will stay secure in case of a breach.

Cloud-powered WAAP

Thanks to cloud-based deployment approach, businesses can use web application security from any place with an internet connection. This deployment option is the most convenient and economical since it does not need client installation or upkeep of WAAP software.

Since it’s SaaS-based, there are no infrastructure requirements like:

Configuring Servers

It means that any server with access to the internet may be used for its deployment. The platform may also grow to support a large number of users. In addition, it may function without servers or other supporting infrastructure.

Setting Up Databases

It’s easier than you would expect to set up a database in a SaaS environment. The software’s administration console helps configure the utmost settings. With this, creating and maintaining a database is significantly simpler and quicker.

Monitoring Performance

It can function locally or on the cloud and is compatible with Windows and Mac. The simple interface also makes it easier to track performance.

Web Application and API Protection is an effective software for streamlining processes and automating routine tasks. Its many advantages include shorter processing times, higher levels of precision and productivity, and lower overall costs. WAAP Solutions’ deployment options are flexible and may be tailored to meet specific requirements – using cloud-based solutions, putting them in place locally, or utilising hybrid models that blend the two are all standard practices.

Yotta’s Managed Web Application & API Protection solution protects businesses’ online assets from the evils of the cyber world. It safeguards digital assets and customer data against new and existing threats, across various environments irrespective of the application architecture in use.

CERT-In’s new directives: A security strategist’s perspective

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One can’t deny greater digital maturity that organisations have achieved in past three years. From widespread cloud adoption, emerging technology use cases to application modernisation among other areas, there has been an accelerated uptake of digital solutions, but cybersecurity remains a concern – in fact, a growing one. According to India’s nodal cybersecurity agency CERT-In, the country witnessed over 14 lakh cybersecurity incidents in 2021. The number is alarming, but the silver lining is that firm efforts are directed towards curbing these incidents.

CERT-In’s latest directives, much talked about among IT leaders and the CISO community, aim at strengthening the cybersecurity posture of enterprises in India. There are 3 major ways these directives strengthen cybersecurity readiness of enterprises, service providers, intermediaries, data centers and government organisations.

Eliminating time discrepancies
CERT-In has mandated synchronisation of ICT infrastructure with Network Time Protocol (NTP) servers of the government’s IT organisation National Informatics Centre (NIC) or National Physical Laboratory (NPL). It has also allowed organisations to connect to Network Time Protocol servers that are traceable to those of National Informatics Centre or National Physical Laboratory.

Syncing of ICT system clock essentially eliminates discrepancies in incident reporting and resolution time, which is critical to ensure timely prevention of greater damage to IT systems after an incident has taken place. Many enterprises, service providers and data centers, including Yotta, maintain in-house Network Time Protocol servers which are connected to all internal servers and devices. Thus, connecting them with National Informatics Centre or National Physical Laboratory doesn’t involve complexities.

Quicker response time
As a major development, CERT-In has defined a timeline of 6 hours for organisations to report any cybersecurity incident. This is an aggressive timeline via-a-vis that of many mature markets. The US, for instance, has set an obligation to report cyber incidents to its Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) within 72 hours.

CERT-In’s 6-hour timeframe is, however, a good step to ensure greater transparency and curb the effects of an incident. The initial hours of an incident are highly critical which determine the impact of the incident. This step will help organisations to mitigate risks as immediately as possible, instead of waiting for several hours. The step will guide organisations to take proactive steps and actions, while allowing CERT-In to hand-hold organisations to respond to the incident, wherever needed.

Maintenance of data
The directive of maintaining subscriber data for 5 years would help CERT-In to maintain a repository of cyber incidents, identify patterns and devise best practices to prevent them in the future. It may require organisations to invest in additional backup and storage capacities, but any investment in cybersecurity is worth the money, since the benefits substantially outweigh the costs.

Overall, these guidelines were much required. It will result in greater seriousness regarding cybersecurity and increased investments in this area. These steps will not just make organisations more conscious about cybersecurity, but also improve their overall cyber posture.

Strengthen your cybersecurity posture with application-aware workload protection

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Application-aware workload protection can offer proactive security in the age of zero-day attacks and enable enterprises to be better prepared in the fight against hackers and cybercriminals.

Thanks to the increasing adoption of technology, our lives have been completely taken over by apps. There are apps for almost every scenario, from waking up to ordering food, running errands, chatting, and a lot more. The rise in the usage of applications has been specifically more phenomenal in the current times of the pandemic as enterprises have accelerated their digital initiatives. The increase in the adoption of applications has expanded the attack surface for hackers and given them new opportunities.

In an increasingly connected and hybrid cloud world, hackers have smartly focused on stealthily embedding themselves into applications and penetrating vulnerable networks. For instance, last year, hackers successfully implanted malware into SolarWinds’ network monitoring software, thereby penetrating thousands of unsuspecting companies. As we can see, cyber-attacks can vary in nature and are often stealthy, which can go undetected for long periods. This can have dangerous implications.

Applications being increasingly targeted

To protect against modern-day threats, enterprises have to understand and recognise that traditional cybersecurity practices are ineffective. Considering the criticality of applications and the tremendous data they hold, hackers are now increasingly going after applications. Their goal is to embed malicious code into the application code and penetrate enterprise networks while remaining undetected. In many cases, such attempts have gone completely unidentified for months before they affect applications and expose or steal confidential data.

This is a blind spot for most organisations, as conventional cybersecurity tools seldom look at application runtime. Existing security systems are reactive, and by the time they analyse logs and look out for signature-based attacks, it is too late, with the hackers running away with stolen data without leaving traces.

Hackers have used this vulnerability to their advantage and are increasingly using memory-based techniques that only activate the application code. For example, in the famous hack of Equifax, which led to the exposure of data of over 140 million customers, a memory-based attack exposed the server and the backend data.

Many enterprises have tried to stop web-based attacks by using a Web Application Firewall (WAF), which protects web applications by monitoring HTTP/s traffic between web applications and the Internet. But this method is ineffective, as hackers can take advantage of vulnerabilities across the web stack (web frameworks, libraries, compiled code, and others). It is, hence, necessary to protect the full stack. However, this can only happen when organizations gain visibility into the application stack.

Getting application-level protection

An application-aware workload protection solution can fulfil this objective by offering visibility and protection for the entire attack surface of the application. This includes the web, memory, and host layers, monitored actively during application runtime. This can help stop most application-related attacks, including library injections, memory errors, process corruption, and malware.

Moreover, applications hosted across cloud, virtual machines, bare-metal servers, and on-premises at data centers require protection. This is where application security solutions provide security controls across physical, virtualised, containerized, and cloud environments. The application-aware workload protection model also moves beyond the boundaries of perimeter security to a more holistic approach that protects applications from the inside.

From a mitigation and detection perspective, application-aware workload platforms can stop in-memory attacks that typically evade detection. Application-aware workload platforms can immediately detect when a workload starts executing malicious code by leveraging in-memory instrumentation. They can also monitor file integrity capabilities to prevent even a single instruction from any unauthorised source (scripts, executables, libraries), eventually leading to an attack.

Why is real-time monitoring of threats critical?

Given the exponential surge in vulnerabilities, it is a daunting task for any enterprise to keep updating patches. Patching is an endless activity of catching up, which leaves organisations extremely vulnerable to attacks. Hackers are constantly looking out for any vulnerabilities, which have led to many zero-day attacks. Due to the remote working scenario, many enterprises are also enabling remote access for their legacy applications. In a rush to quickly provide remote access, it has been observed that many organisations are bypassing security controls, which makes them highly vulnerable.

An application-aware workload protection solution can address these gaps, as it can monitor applications by identifying illegal code modifications as they occur. In addition, these solutions can instantly identify deviations with the ability to monitor runtime environments. This visibility helps detect attacks in real time and stop them within seconds without worrying about zero-day threats or vulnerabilities.

Let us now look at the typical approaches of enterprises for improving their security posture. The most popular is the signature-based model, which uses intelligence from past attack patterns to protect enterprises. Some enterprises have also invested in setting up web application honeypots to better understand hackers’ reconnaissance activities as they scan for applications to attack. Sandboxing is another popular cybersecurity technique wherein organisations run tested or untested code in an isolated environment so that it does not cause any damage to the existing host systems. This is designed to prevent any possibility of threats affecting the core systems or networks.

Compared to the approaches mentioned above, an application-aware model does not require any previous intelligence of attack patterns. Instead, by just monitoring the integrity of applications in real-time, an application-aware workload protection model can immediately stop attacks at the very first step, before any damage can be done.

In summary, application-aware workload protection can offer proactive security in the age of zero-day attacks and enable enterprises to be better prepared in the fight against hackers and cybercriminals.

Source: https://cio.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/digital-security/strengthen-your-cybersecurity-posture-with-application-aware-workload-protection/86056043

Why Security is Paramount in a Digital-First Economy?

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In today’s digital-first world, businesses are rethinking their approach to security. Instead of a traditional reactive approach of band-aid security solutions, CISOs are now looking for scalable, long-term strategies that could proactively protect their enterprise environment and prevent cyber criminals from taking advantage of vulnerabilities that got exposed during crisis situations like the one we all are currently going through.

With millions of people working from anywhere, the attack surface for cybercriminals has increased considerably. Hackers have been quick to take advantage of the loopholes created due to relatively less secure remote working mechanisms, leading to a huge rise in cyberattacks. And with attackers successfully evading defenses, business and security leaders are forced to rely on converged security approaches to address new remote workforce challenges.

Just a cursory look at some of the recent findings from different cyber security OEMs, points out to the huge increase in threats. A recent report from Fortinet, highlighted that home branch offices remained a big target for cyber criminals, wherein they targeted IoT devices such as home routers, connected security devices, home entertainment systems. Similarly, the 2021 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report highlights how COVID-19 provided threat actors with ample opportunity for more powerful, aggressive, and numerous attacks, thriving on the fear and uncertainty of remote and mobile workforces navigating corporate networks from home.

A report from Norton also highlighted that 45 percent of adult Indian internet users faced identity threat in 2020. This figure rose by nearly 40% to 2.7Cr since 2019. This is roughly over 2% of India’s population. Additionally, Norton also stated that 59% of all adult Indian internet users faced cybercrime in some for or the other in 2020. As one can see, a distributed workforce has raised threat levels to a new, higher level, as home users do not have the same level of protection as an enterprise does.

Changing threat landscape

Cybercrime has also got more sophisticated and more targeted. Hackers are constantly exploring new dimensions and vulnerabilities that they can exploit. For example, last year’s biggest enterprise security incident, which caught some of the most prominent organisations by surprise, was the SolarWinds attack, where hackers created a backdoor in SolarWinds’ Orion network monitoring software. This proved to be a big area of vulnerability, as updates and patching are rarely monitored, and highlighted the importance of permissions or access rights allowed for third-party software.

While AI has helped improve security, it has also enabled hackers to find new software vulnerabilities. AI today is increasingly used by hackers to create smart malware that understands how to exploit specific vulnerabilities in the host system and evade detection.

The increased adoption of the cloud has also brought certain vulnerabilities in the cloud ecosystem to the forefront. Most of these vulnerabilities are due to improper implementation or enforcement of cloud security controls from the customer. This includes cloud misconfigurations which can put credentials at risk. For example, a common cloud misconfiguration error leaves unencrypted data exposed to the Internet without any authentication. This happens because organisations leave the default permissions unchanged and make the mistake of assuming that the same settings that work in on-premise environments will work the same way in a cloud-based environment.

The Cloud Security Alliance lists ten more common threats. This includes data breaches, lack of cloud architecture and security, insufficient identity, credential, access and key management; account hijacking; insider threats; insecure interfaces and APIs; weak control plane; metastructure and applistructure failures; limited cloud usage visibility and abuse and nefarious use of cloud services.

Ensuring secure remote access

As organisations are now operating in the era of what can be termed as the ‘unbound enterprise’, the realities of distributed workforce and digital transformation require them to adopt a strategy of enabling productivity from anywhere while securing data everywhere.

Enterprises have responded by trying to provide secure access to corporate applications. This includes giving access using VPNs or cloud-based zero-trust authentication solutions. Some enterprises have also tried to ensure secure access to company data and applications using virtual desktops. This also ensures that confidential data cannot be downloaded to a remote or home computer.

In certain cases, the attacks culminate on the endpoint or the network layer, which makes traffic monitoring essential. This is where proactive network forensics becomes critical. It’s next to impossible for enterprises to evade security breaches, but if they are armoured with network forensics capabilities, they are in a better position to defend against future attacks proactively.

Concerning cloud security, enterprises must understand that a big responsibility of configuring cloud security settings lies with the customer. Enterprises can also use cloud-based automation tools to enforce rules and find out exceptions or vulnerabilities in their cloud environments. In remote working environments, organisations can also take advantage of techniques such as endpoint backup as a service to ensure adequate protection of data in remote desktops or laptops.

For ensuring protection in an always-connected world, enterprises should take help from the expertise of Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs). Equipped with the right technology and people, MSSPs can ensure a holistic and continuous threat monitoring service. Simultaneously, organisations can also place an additional layer of security by using zero-trust authentication and monitoring user behavior using analytics.

More importantly, for ensuring a holistic security policy, the combination of people, process and technology must work in close coordination. Even the best technology and process cannot prevent an organisation from getting hacked if its employees are unaware of basic security hygiene. Enterprises must enforce this as part of their security policy. In most organisations today, ISMS trainings are mandatory and a part of employee induction.

In today’s complex IT environment, which includes a mix of onsite and multi-cloud environments, the focus has moved from protecting data in a defined perimeter. Today, there are no boundaries, and identity is the new perimeter. Hence, security must be embedded as part of the design, which can help enterprises be proactive in mitigating security risks across the entire ecosystem (suppliers, partners) and lead to improved business confidence.

Source: https://ciso.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/why-security-is-paramount-in-a-digital-first-economy/83910422