Intelligent CISO Issue 11 | Page 41

E R T N P X E INIO OP A layered approach to cybersecurity: People, processes and technology Alain Penel, Regional Vice President – Middle East, Fortinet, outlines the various approaches to cybersecurity, which includes the three crucial aspects – people, processes and technology. C ybercrime is an ever-present threat facing organisations of all sizes. In order to safeguard themselves against a successful data breach, IT teams must stay a step ahead of cybercriminals by defending against a barrage of increasingly-sophisticated attacks at high volumes. In Q3 of 2018 alone, FortiGuard Labs detected 1,114 exploits per firm, each representing an opportunity for a cybercriminal to infiltrate a network and exfiltrate or compromise valuable data. What complicates this challenge further is that the strategies and attack vectors that cybercriminals rely on are always evolving. It’s the classic problem of www.intelligentciso.com | Issue 11 Alain Penel – Regional VP – Fortinet security teams having to cover every contingency, while cybercriminals only need to slip past defences once. Because of this, IT teams must continuously update their defences based on current threat trends. Today, IoT, mobile malware, cryptojacking and botnets are top focuses for cybercriminals, but they may have moved on to new threats by Q4. With this in mind, IT security teams have a lot of ground to cover. A layered approach to cybersecurity Many think of a layered approach to cybersecurity in terms of technology and tools. This means having various security controls in place to protect separate entryways. For example, deploying a web application firewall, endpoint protections and secure email gateways, rather than relying only on traditional perimeter defences. Unfortunately, there is no silver bullet to guarantee effective security posture, nor a single defensive mechanism that can ensure security across modern distributed networks. While these solutions are all part of a layered security approach, it actually goes well beyond deploying layers of different security tools. In order to defend against today’s threats, IT teams must take a layered approach to their cybersecurity. For cybersecurity to be effective, organisations must also consider how they leverage people and processes. 41