- Security of the Network refers to the practice that protects a computer system from intrusions. This can be done by either targeted attackers or malicious software.
- Application Security is concerned with keeping devices and software free from threats. A compromised application may allow access to data it was designed to protect. Security begins at the design stage. This is well before any program or device has been deployed.
- Information Security Protects the integrity and confidentiality of data in both storage and transit.
- Operational Security is the process and decision for managing and protecting data assets. This umbrella includes the permissions that users have to access a network, and procedures for determining how and where data can be stored and shared.
- Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity describe how an organization responds to any event that results in the loss of data or operations. Disaster recovery policies define how an organization will restore its operations and data to get back to the same operational capacity as before. Business continuity is a plan that an organization uses to continue operating without certain resources.
- End User Education addresses cyber securitys most unpredictable factor: the people. By failing to adhere to good security practices, anyone can introduce a virus into a system that is otherwise secure. It is important to teach users how to delete suspicious emails attachments, avoid plugging in USB drives that are not identified, and other valuable lessons.
Why Is Data Protection Important?
Data security is the process of protecting digital data from unauthorized access, theft, or corruption throughout its lifecycle. Data security is a concept which encompasses all aspects of information security, from the physical security and storage of devices to the administrative and access control as well as logical security in software applications. This concept also encompasses organizational policies and procedures.
Properly implemented data security strategies protect an organization's information assets from cybercriminals, but also against insider threats, human error and other factors that are leading to data breaches. The deployment of tools and technologies to enhance visibility and control over critical data is a key part of data security. These tools should have the ability to protect sensitive data with encryption, data masking and redaction, as well as automate reporting in order to comply with regulatory requirements and streamline audits.
Business Challenges
Digital transformation has a profound impact on how businesses compete and operate today. Data governance is becoming more important as the volume of data created, manipulated, and stored by enterprises continues to grow. Computing environments are also more complex. They now span the public cloud, enterprise data centers, and a variety of edge devices, from robots to remote servers, as well as Internet of Things (IoT), sensors, and other edge devices. This increased complexity leads to a larger attack surface, which is more difficult to monitor and secure.
Likewise, the consumers awareness of data privacy issues is increasing. In response to the growing public demand for data privacy initiatives, several new privacy regulations, such as Europes General Data Protection Regulation and California Consumer Protection Act, have been recently enacted.
These regulations join other data security laws such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which protects electronic health records and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which protects shareholders of public companies against accounting errors and fraud. The maximum fines can reach millions of dollars. This gives every business a strong incentive to maintain compliance.
Data has never had a greater business value than today. Loss of intellectual property or trade secrets can have a negative impact on future innovation and profitability.
Trustworthiness is becoming increasingly important for consumers. 75% of respondents said they would not buy from companies that they did not trust to protect their personal data.
Data Security Types
Encryption
Encryption keys scramble the data by using an algorithm that converts normal text characters to an unreadable format. Only authorized users are able to read it. The encryption of files and databases is a last line of defense against sensitive data by hiding their contents using encryption or tokenization. The majority of solutions include security key management features.
Data Erasure
Data erasure is more secure than standard wiping of data. It uses software to overwrite all data on a storage device. It ensures that data cannot be recovered.
Data Masking
Masking data allows organizations to allow teams to create applications or train users using real data. The masking of personally identifiable information (PII), where required, allows development to take place in compliant environments.
Data Resiliency
How well an organization recovers after a failure is what determines its resilience. This can be anything from power outages to hardware issues. To minimize the impact, it is important to recover quickly.
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Cyber Security Threats Are Evolving
Cyber threats are different today than they were even a few short years ago. Organizations need to protect themselves against the tools and techniques of cybercriminals, both current and future.
Gen V Attacks
Cyber security threats are constantly evolving. Sometimes, this evolution represents a new cyber threat generation.
We have seen five generations of cyber-threats and the solutions that were designed to counter them.
- Gen 1 (Virus): In late 1980s, the first anti-virus solutions were created in response to virus attacks on standalone computers.
- Gen II: The firewall was designed to block cyberattacks as they began to occur over the internet.
- Gen 3 (Applications): Exploitation vulnerabilities within applications led to the mass adoption of Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS).
- Gen 4 (Payloads): Malware became more sophisticated and capable of evading signature-based security measures. Anti-bot and Sandboxing solutions are needed to detect new threats.
- Gen 5 (Mega): Cyber threats of the latest generation are multi-vectored and large-scale. Advanced threat prevention solutions should be a priority.
Cyber security solutions have become less effective with each new generation of cyber-threats. Gen V solutions are needed to protect against todays cyber threats.
Supply Chain Attacks
In the past, most organizations have focused their security efforts on their own systems and applications. They try to stop cyber-threat actors from breaking into their networks by hardening perimeters and only allowing access to authorized applications and users.
Recent supply chain attacks have shown the weaknesses of this strategy and the willingness and ability of cybercriminals to exploit it.
Hacks on SolarWinds and Microsoft Exchange Server as well as Kaseya have shown that trust relationships between organizations can be a weakness for corporate cyber security strategies. Cyber threat actors can access the networks of their clients by exploiting a single organization and using these trust relationships.
Security must be based on a zero-trust approach. Although partnerships and vendor relations are beneficial to business, software and third-party users should only have the access they need to perform their tasks.
Ransomware
Although ransomware is not new, it has only become the most popular form of malware in the past few years. WannaCrys ransomware attack demonstrated that ransomware is profitable and viable, causing a surge in ransomware campaigns.
Since then, ransomware has changed dramatically. While ransomware was once limited to encrypting files, now it will steal data in order to extort both the victim and customers through double- and triple-extortion attacks.
Some ransomware groups use DDoS attacks or threaten them to extort victims.
Ransomware as a Service model (RaaS), where developers of ransomware provide their malware for "affiliates" in exchange of a portion of the ransom, has also contributed to the growth of ransomware.
RaaS gives cybercriminals access to sophisticated malware. This makes sophisticated attacks more frequent. Ransomware protection is now an integral part of enterprise cyber security strategies.
Read More: Which Company Works On Security In IoT?
Phishing
Cybercriminals have used phishing attacks to gain access into corporate environments for years. Its often easier to trick an individual into clicking on a link or downloading an attachment, than to find and exploit a weakness in an organizations security.
Phishing attacks have become more sophisticated in recent years. Modern phishing attacks are so convincing that they can almost be mistaken for legitimate emails.
Cyber security awareness training for employees is not sufficient to protect them against the modern phishing threats.
Cyber security solutions are needed to manage the phishing risk. These solutions must identify and block malicious emails even before they reach an individuals inbox.
Malware
Cyberattacks are categorized by their evolution. Cyber defenders and malware authors are constantly playing a cat-and-mouse game where attackers attempt to create techniques that bypass or overcome the latest security technology.
When they succeed, a whole new generation of cyberattacks are created.
Modern malware is stealthy and sophisticated. Legacy security solutions, such as signature-based security, are no longer effective.
By the time analysts detect and respond to a threat the damage has already been done.
Malware attacks are no longer protected by detection alone. Cyber security solutions that focus on prevention are needed to mitigate the threat posed by Gen V malware.
They must stop the attack from starting and do any damage before the attack begins.
Data Security Solutions and Capabilities
Data security technologies and tools should be able to address the challenges of todays distributed, hybrid and/or multiple cloud computing environments. This includes understanding where the data is located, tracking who has access to them, and blocking high risk activities and potentially harmful file movements. Data protection solutions with a centralized approach that allows enterprises to monitor and enforce policies can make the job easier.
Data Discovery and Classification Tools
Data repositories such as databases, data warehouses and big data platforms can contain sensitive information. Data discovery and classification tools automate the identification of sensitive data, and also assess and remediate vulnerabilities.
Data Monitoring and File Activity Monitoring
File activity monitoring tools are designed to analyze data usage patterns. They allow security teams and IT professionals to identify anomalies, as well as risks, by analyzing data usage patterns. For abnormal patterns of activity, dynamic blocking and alerting is also possible.
Tools For Vulnerability Assessment And Risk Analyses
These solutions can help identify and mitigate vulnerabilities, such as outdated software, incorrect configurations or weak passwords. They can also identify the data sources that are most at risk.
Automated Compliance Reporting
Data protection solutions that combine automated reporting with comprehensive data security can be used to create a central repository for audit trails of compliance across the enterprise.
What are Cyber Security Solutions (Cyber Security Solutions)?
Cyber security solutions include technological tools and services to protect against cyber attacks.
These can lead to application downtimes, theft of sensitive information, reputational damage, fines for non-compliance, and many other negative consequences.
Tools are essential in the modern security world, where threats are constantly changing. We will review several broad categories for cyber security solutions.
- Application Security Solutions: helps test software applications for weaknesses during development and testing, and protects them from attacks when they are running in production.
- Endpoint Security: deployed to endpoint devices such as servers and employee workstations. It helps detect and stop breaches in real time.
- Network Security: monitor traffic on the network, identify malicious traffic and allow organizations to filter, block or mitigate threats.
- Internet of Things (IoT), Security: Help gain visibility and apply controls to a growing network of IoT devices, which is increasingly used in mission-critical applications, and stores sensitive data but are often left unsecured by default.
- Cloud Security: Help gain control over complex environments such as public, hybrid, or private clouds by detecting security vulnerabilities and misconfigurations, and helping them to be remedied.
Top 10 Data Security Solutions
It is even more difficult to choose the right solution because many of them have features that overlap. Below are the top 10 data security solutions to help you.
1. Data Discovery and Classification
Data classification software can scan all your repositories, both on-premises and in the cloud, for sensitive documents and classify them as they are found.
Data classification will make it easier to remove redundant data and duplicates, as well as assigning access controls, and increasing visibility of where data is stored and how its being used. The most sophisticated solutions are capable of classifying data in accordance with the relevant compliance requirements.
2. Firewalls
A firewall can prevent remote access and monitor network traffic to detect suspicious packets. Firewalls are still important in protecting your data, even though they may not be as relevant as before.
3. Intrusion Detection & Prevention Systems (IDPS)
Intrusion Detection & Prevention Systems analyze network traffic packets for signatures matching known cyber threats in a cyber threat database.
If it finds a match, or detects suspicious activity, the solution will block/quarantine traffic and alert the administrator to investigate the incident.
4. Anti-Virus/Anti-Phishing
AV/AP will try to identify and stop malicious emails. Anti-virus solutions will scan for viruses and look for messages impersonating trusted entities.
Some advanced solutions are able to detect and block outbound suspicious messages, including attachments containing sensitive data.
5. Security Information and Event Management
Security Information and Event Management solutions (SIEMs) provide real-time monitoring and analyses of security logs generated by devices, applications, networks, infrastructure and systems.
SIEM solutions may be more advanced than other data security tools, but theyre not as cheap or easy to maintain. Security Information and Event Management systems also tend to be noisy. You will therefore need an experienced staff member to sort through all the alerts and disregard any false positives.
6. Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
A Data Loss Prevention Solution is designed to stop sensitive data from leaving a corporate network. Data Loss Prevention uses business rules to identify suspicious outbound traffic.
For example, when an email with sensitive data is sent from a non-company email address. An alert is sent to the administrator, who investigates the incident and determines its relevance.
7. Data Encryption
There are many data encryption options available. Some solutions will ask for a password every time you attempt to access the data on an encrypted partition or drive.
Some solutions will encrypt only specific files or folders. Others will offer a folder in which you can store the files that you wish to be encrypted. Some solutions require a master passcode to access all files on a device.
8. Data-Centric Audit and Protection (DCAP)
Data-Centric Audit & Protection solutions are similar in many ways to SIEM, but they are lighter and easier to use.
Data-Centric audit & protection solutions are different from SIEM because they focus on the data and keep track of the users interactions with it.
A sophisticated Data-Centric Audit and Protection Solution will aggregate event data (both on-premise and in the cloud) and display a summary of relevant events via an easy-to-use console.
You can receive real-time notifications to your mobile or email.
Data-Centric Audit and Protection Solutions use machine-learning algorithms to detect anomalies. They can also alert users on events that meet a threshold condition.
These solutions also include data classification tools.
9. Multi-factor Authentication (MFA)
Users are required to use multi-factor authentication to log in. It could be a code sent to your phone, a hardware dongle or biometric data such as fingerprints.
Read More: Artificial Intelligence at the service of Cybersecurity
10. Mobile Device Management (MDM)
Mobile Device Management, also called Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM), is a software that helps monitor, manage, and secure mobile devices, laptops, and tablets connected to a companys network.
Mobile Device Management allows companies to set security policies for all devices with access to sensitive information, including deciding what apps can be downloaded. MDM solutions are also able to locate misplaced devices, and some of them can remotely delete sensitive information from a lost or stolen device.
There are many other technologies to consider, in addition to those listed above. These include web vulnerability scanners that crawl the pages of an app looking for security flaws and Virtual Private Networks.
VPNs allow users to securely and remotely access the company network via a public or shared network.
Emerging Cyber Security Solutions Trends
DMARC
DMARC is a protocol designed specifically for email communication. The DMARC protocol authenticates email messages using the Sender Policy Framework (SPF) as well as DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM).
DMARC is a great way to add another layer of security and trust. DMARC can be used to complement your security efforts, but it doesnt cover everything.
Passwordless Authentication
Passwordless authentication allows organizations to replace passwords by other forms of authentication such as tokens, password generators and biometric signatures.
It is important to limit the number of weak passwords that users create and stop them from using personal passwords at work. Passwordless authentication improves both user experience and security.
Zero Trust Cyber Security
Zero trust is an access control model that enforces strict security. The goal of zero trust is to cover not only the traditional perimeter, but all corporate assets located in various locations.
All of these devices should be treated as if they were not trusted. This means, at the very least, applying strict authentication to granular types of users.
Endpoint security is also used by organizations to enforce zero-trust.
Privacy Enhancing Computation
Organizations can protect their private information by using privacy-enhancing computation. The goal is to create a trustworthy environment for the processing of sensitive data.
Privacy-enhancing technologies also use privacy-aware algorithms for machine learning to decentralize processing and analytics.
Homomorphic encryption is a form of cryptography which allows third parties to process encrypted data. The third-party returns encrypted results only to the data owner, without providing any information about the results.
This allows collaborators to share data without compromising privacy.
Hyper Automation
Hyper automation is the practice that involves automating as many IT processes and business processes as possible.
This involves the use of a variety of decision processes and automation technology, including artificial intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), robotic process automation. By creating automated and interconnected pipelines, the goal is to reduce overhead and inefficiency associated with legacy systems.
Cyber Security Solutions for Developers.dev
developers.dev is a comprehensive cybersecurity solution which covers both application security and data protection.
Developers.dev integrates your Security Information and Event Management System (SIEM) to allow integration with the other cybersecurity solutions discussed in this article.
Developers.dev Application Security Solutions
Developers.dev offers comprehensive protection for APIs, microservices, and applications.
Web Application Firewall: Prevent attacks by analyzing web traffic directed to your applications.
Runtime Application Self Protection (RASP): Real-time detection and prevention of attacks from your application runtime environments goes anywhere your applications go.
Reduce your vulnerability backlog by stopping external attacks and injections.
API Security - Automated API Protection ensures that your API endpoints will be protected from exploitation as soon as they are published.
Advanced Bot Protection: Prevent business logic attacks on all access points, including websites, mobile applications and APIs.
Get a complete view of bot traffic and take control to prevent online fraud such as account takeovers or price scraping.
DDoS protection - Blocking attack traffic at edge ensures business continuity, with uptime guaranteed and no performance impact.
Protect your cloud assets, whether they are hosted on AWS, aws project management, Microsoft Azure or Google Public Cloud.
Attack Analytics - Ensures complete transparency with machine learning, domain expertise and application security stacks to reveal patterns and detect attacks.
This allows you to isolate and stop attack campaigns.
Client-Side Security - Get visibility and control of third-party JavaScript codes to reduce supply chain fraud risk, prevent data breaches and client-side threats.
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Data Security Solutions By Developers.Dev
Developers.dev provides protection for all cloud-based storage systems to ensure compliance, preserve agility and cost savings and maintain your cloud investment:
Cloud Data Security: Simplify the security of your cloud databases and catch up to DevOps. The developers.dev solution allows cloud-managed service users to quickly gain visibility and control over cloud data.
Database Security - developers.dev provides analytics, protection, and response for your data assets on-premises and in the Cloud - giving you risk visibility to avoid data breaches and compliance incidents.
Integrate any database for instant visibility and universal policies. Speed up time to value.
Data Risk Analysis - Automated detection of noncompliant, malicious, or risky data access behaviors across your entire enterprise.
