What CXOs must do to improve cyber resilience

Digital threats are an ever-evolving concern, creating new challenges for individuals, businesses, and governments worldwide. To stay ahead of these threats, we must take proactive steps now. By understanding the latest developments and trends in the digital threat landscape, organizations can begin to construct a solid foundation from which to develop tailored solutions. With the right strategy in place, businesses can remain vigilant custodians of their data security and safety, moving forward.

In its Digital Defense Report, Microsoft throws light on the ever-evolving landscape of cyber threats and trends and how organizations can thrive in this digital age by developing strategies that bolster their resiliency against these risks.

The state of cybercrime

Cybercrime is becoming a complex and increasingly sophisticated business enterprise, as attackers continue to find new ways of implementing their techniques. To lower costs and falsely appear legitimate, malefactors are taking advantage of compromised networks or devices for activities such as hosting phishing campaigns, malware distribution, or even the mining of cryptocurrency.

Hackers need not be technically proficient: As technology advances and cybercrime opportunities increase, so too does the likelihood of malicious actors taking advantage of it. The proliferation of hacking tools is making this increasingly accessible to amateur hackers.
Ransomware and extortion: Attackers are leveraging ransomware and extortion to target governments, businesses, and vital infrastructure. Threatening to release sensitive information has become a common tactic employed to extort payment from victims. Criminals employing human-operated attacks have seen success in over one-third of their targets, with victims paying ransom five percent of the time.
Phishing scams: With an ever-increasing number of credential phishing schemes indiscriminately targeting inboxes, businesses across the world now face a severe risk from email compromise. Invoice fraud is becoming one of today’s most prevalent cybercrime threats.
Growing number of state-backed attacks: State-backed cyberattacks are leveraging sophisticated cyber tactics to pursue their strategic objectives, posing a growing threat to critical infrastructure including IT systems, financial services, communication infrastructure, and transportation systems. Additionally, they are using the supply chain of IT businesses as an entry point into targeted organizations.
Operational technology attacks: As technology progresses, cybercriminals and nation-states are swiftly capitalizing on the vulnerability of IoT/OT devices that have not been updated with current security protocols, thereby gaining access to corporate networks or disrupting operations in supply chains.
Cyber influence operations: Cyber influence operations, including authoritarian propaganda, are becoming a threat to democracies as they reduce trust, increase polarization, and threaten democratic processes.

Minimum cybersecurity standards organizations must adopt

Enable multifactor authentication (MFA): To ensure that your organization’s security is as robust and reliable as possible, employ multifactor authentication (MFA). This will reduce the risk of a breached user password by providing an additional protective layer for all identities.

Apply Zero Trust principles: Utilizing Zero Trust principles is integral to any successful resilience plan. Verifying user and device states, granting minimal privileges necessary for access, and monitoring the environment as if compromise has already occurred are key strategies when it comes to protecting an organization from potential attacks.

Use extended detection and response anti-malware: To mitigate the danger of malicious attacks, it is essential to have extended detection and response anti-malware in place that can identify potential issues with threat intelligence systems and respond quickly. Such safeguards will help ensure a secure environment while preventing devastating outcomes from occurring.

Keep up to date: Organizations must remain proactive in the fight against cybercrime by ensuring all systems are regularly updated with the latest firmware, operating systems, and applications. Failing to stay current is a major vulnerability that can leave businesses open to attack.

Protect data: Having a comprehensive understanding of your key data, where it is housed and if the appropriate security practices are in place may be crucial to safeguarding its integrity.

How organizational leadership can help security leaders improve cyber resilience

As technology increasingly shapes the way businesses operate, cyber security has become a crucial factor in enabling success. Organizations must introduce mechanisms to increase their stability against present-day threats, making them as resilient as possible. Cyber resilience cannot be achieved without executives and security teams working together to implement tailored defenses; thus requiring strong leadership from those at the top of an organization.

Organization leaders can work with security leaders in the following ways to implement cyber resilience in the organization.

Build security by design

Security is often perceived as an impediment to progress rather than a critical element for successful business operations. Unfortunately, it can sometimes be overlooked until negative consequences are unavoidable or the cost of mitigation has become too high.

As a leader or policymaker, it is essential to build security into new initiatives from the start. This will ensure that digital transformations are implemented safely while minimizing risk exposure. Furthermore, leveraging those processes can help upgrade legacy systems with modern features – unlocking improved safety and productivity alike.
Pre-emptive security measures need to be firmly established for organizations to adequately defend against malicious actors. By allocating proper resources, such as budgets and scheduled downtime, leaders can facilitate the application of necessary updates and patches – along with secure configurations. This is essential for organizations to close the entry point for cybercriminals.

Engage with security

For organizations to remain at their most secure, top-level leaders must take initiative in both participating and investing in critical security protocols. This helps ensure adequate resources are available for responding swiftly to any potential threats or disasters that arise.

Security leaders and teams are tasked with the essential responsibility of identifying company assets that must be protected. To do this effectively, they need to address new questions whose answers have not been previously established. This allows them to target security resources towards safeguarding what matters most for businesses.
When facing a cyberattack, organizations must take swift and coordinated action to minimize damage and restore operations. Leaders can help with preparations such as cybersecurity business continuity and disaster recovery exercises so that teams throughout an organization can confidently respond while quickly restoring operations; minimizing disruption of services offered by businesses, preserving their customers’ trust, and protecting their constituents.

Position security correctly

Organizational structures can have a huge impact on how risk decisions are made, and it’s important to assess that very carefully. All too often security teams bear the brunt of any questionable actions or oversight, yet business owners may not even be aware of threats against their organization due to a lack of visibility and control over the risks they face. Empowering these individuals with full access across all areas is an essential step for making sound decision-making possible concerning such sensitive matters as security risk assessment.

Business owners can be effectively prepared for security threats by engaging essential teams and understanding how these risks could impact the success of their operations. Such activity facilitates a collaborative relationship with security, leading to increased agility in meeting business goals.
By equipping business owners with the knowledge to comprehend and accept security risks, organizations can effectively transfer the accountability for such threats while simultaneously allowing security teams to maintain responsibility in managing these hazards. Security personnel must offer informed advice and support so that business owners are empowered to address risk successfully.

Source: Microsoft