From the inventions of Charles Babbage, “the father of the computer”, to chatbots, today’s ubiquitous virtual assistants, tech remains indispensable for business. Increasingly prevalent today, however, are bad actors that leverage resources to tamper with an organization’s reputation.
The ever-evolving tech landscape houses both tech users and tech abusers, which poses benefits as well as threats for any business today.
Building new tech doesn’t benefit only the businesses, but also the tech abusers. Let’s say you’ve introduced generative AI in your business to help with the software development lifecycle. A threat actor might find this as a potential entryway to breach and take advantage of your business, perhaps by utilizing Ransomware as a Service (RaaS), a subscription-based model for launching cyberattacks first used in 2012. RaaS arrangements enable the subscribers to infect computers by exploiting software vulnerabilities or utilizing phishing emails. The RaaS providers develops, maintains, and updates the ransomware, while the subscribers are responsible for infecting computers and networks.
It is IT and security teams that are empowered to build a secure IT network for a business. When tasked with such a massive and creative responsibility, it is imperative that IT teams build a network that will not only withstand any current threats, but is also prepared to handle emerging challenges.
Let’s explore some of the fundamentals that help you build a secure IT network to address your current and future needs.
Unify your tech stack
IT and security operations have a set of resources available to them, and whenever a new technology in this domain emerges, your organization should evaluate it and add it to your tool set. With additional tools, IT security teams are generally able to address more scenarios and at a faster pace. On the flip side, with inclusion of more and more tools, IT team often find it more challenging to organize data to build a clear picture of their network. This can also impact your endpoints, as this requires installing an agent for every new tool.
Instead, evaluate tools that address most of your use-cases. Also, make sure that the tool’s vendor is staying current with the market developments and trends so that you don’t have to install new tool sets frequently. You want to ensure that essential components are added to the existing tools without affecting the experience of IT and employees.
Tools like unified endpoint management (UEM) address both IT management and security, eliminating or reducing the need to install numerous products. These tools also greatly reduce the pain in onboarding IT devices. Preparing a large number of endpoints for every use-case will be difficult, now with UEM resources, onboarding is more efficient.
Deliver a flexible and secure employee experience
For the last several years, work culture has evolved. Many organizations embrace at least a partial remote workforce, and additional changes regarding the way we work are anticipated. Through these progressions, IT security teams continue to keep their resources fortified, even if it means cutting down access to select essential services. The decisions made, by the IT security team and the C-suite, should prioritize productivity and exceptional user-experiences while ensuring the network is secure.
Defending cyberattacks with actionable insights
A priority for IT security teams is to equip themselves with real-time data that provides visibility into their network. Tracking and monitoring the movement of data with more accuracy helps anticipate and resolve most issues. Having a transparent knowledge of your network is effective for thwarting ransomware attacks.
Data compilation will become challenging as the organization grows and the amount of digital resources expand. The IT team should ensure that, despite all obstacles, it accurately tracks data so it can be converted into actionable insights that the organizations IT tools can use to resolve the issues and potential issues.
When you have multiple point products in the picture, consolidating data from every product can be problematic. It is advisable to opt for comprehensive solutions, which will provide granular insights and enable your IT to act on the issues.
Patch your problems proactively
Patching is the primary step when it comes to IT security. IT teams should ensure recently released patches are installed promptly and correctly. A forward-thinking plan includes automating the patch deployment, customizing the process according to the end-user’s experience, and testing the patches before rolling them out to production.
Preventing cyberattacks is better than remediating them
What’s new in IT security? One fundamental practice that remains evergreen is proactive security management. If your organization relies on healing your network and endpoints after they are compromised, it is likely it will end up paying money to the threat actors instead of its employees.
A strategy to combat this involves measuring and analyzing the attack surface, and then developing a plan to defend your organization from such criminals.
For example, whenever you install an application on any endpoint, write down the list of possibilities through which a hacker can gain entry. By doing so, you will install the security barriers along with the application and seal the loophole.
One endpoint, one application. This should be easy. But how about at a business level? Data flows fast and randomly. Trying to track and patch every parameter manually, especially in many corporate environments, is close to impossible. Leveraging capabilities like ransomware protection, data loss prevention (DLP) policies, and AI-assisted monitoring tools increases your ability to secure your network.
Sanitizing IT devices and IT networks
An endpoint is not considered a dormant component in your networking. It is an interactive component that is collaborating with self-hosted applications, cloud applications, and external devices. If your network is left unattended, there are some simple loopholes bad actors can use to crack and exploit your business. IT teams should carefully evaluate the use of any application, plug-in to any external device, and cloud-based application. Since browsers act as a gateway to your cloud applications, try not to leave the browsers exposed.
Make sure to solidify your security principles over applications, external devices such as USBs, drives, CDs, and browsers.
These strategies help business build a secure IT network, that not only withstands cyber threats, but also ensures that the employees are flexible and productive with their digital resources.
ManageEngine Endpoint Central is a UEM tool that focuses on both endpoint security and management. With capabilities to manage, monitor and secure endpoints throughout their lifecycle, Endpoint Central empowers IT and security teams to master the skill of building the best IT network for any organization. This solution features vital strategies that help you deliver exceptional employee experiences by utilizing it’s extensive device onboarding and provisioning features, proactive endpoint security management, advanced remote troubleshooting kit, software distribution, application provisioning and a lot more.
Give Endpoint Central a try to build the best IT network for your business. Start with a 30 day free trial.
Article Contributed by Nisangan is a cybersecurity expert who excels in endpoint management and security domain. He has a deep interest in technology and provides expert guidance to both individuals and companies, developing strategic options for their growth and protection.