Expert Speak

Managing Risk in the Cloud

Published

2 years ago

June 5, 2023

Written by Garth Braithwaite, Senior Director at Gigamon

Shifting workloads to the cloud has been front and centre of many organisations’ digital transformation initiatives in recent years. Yet it’s no secret that the unforeseen spiralling costs of cloud computing have now become a significant stumbling block. The rising monthly bills keep rolling in, putting CIOs under pressure and forming key discussion points in the Boardroom.

This heavy, costly burden for the IT sector is a result of complex hybrid infrastructure that continues to be a lucrative target for threat actors. In fact, studies have found that 95% of organisations are concerned about cloud security, while 42% of global IT and security leaders cite cloud applications as a common ransomware threat vector. It seems that IT teams are therefore becoming more aware of the challenges of securing the cloud, but the security stack is struggling to keep up.

The reality is that many of the security and monitoring tools designed for an on-premises world simply cannot properly protect a virtual and hybrid environment. And while gaining insight into all data-in-motion is crucial to both security and compliance, the myriad of tools being used across hybrid and multi-clouds make achieving this level of insight a challenge. It’s likely blind spots exist between the network and the cloud – allowing threat actors to hide for what could be weeks or months before they deploy devastating strains of malware.

How to manage the risk
The key to successfully managing risk in the cloud is made up of two parts: firstly, shifting the security mindset from reactive to proactive, and secondly, embracing deep observability. For far too long, organisations have been building up their walls of defence higher and higher, hoping their security tools will protect them in the case of an impending attack. In essence, many have been sitting ducks waiting for threat actors to find a back-door entrance or exploit a cloud blind spot. Security teams, therefore, need to change tact and become proactive threat hunters that not only find and fix critical inefficiencies and vulnerabilities before they are breached but also identify behavioural anomalies in their data.

This is only possible with actionable insight into all data from core to cloud, powered by deep observability. Deep observability employs real-time, network-level intelligence to track activity across a network. It goes further than the current log and trace-based monitoring tools that many enterprises have in place, optimising and amplifying the power of these solutions to rapidly detect suspicious activity and act accordingly. Achieving this ‘single source of truth’ also helps to reduce complexity and therefore cost.

Research shows that while cloud adoption may slow down, it won’t come to a complete halt. It’s likely organisations will continue to dedicate budget to protecting the cloud, but to do so they’ll need to find ways to make any investment go further. It’s important to remember that you cannot manage what you cannot see. Deep observability from core to cloud has never been more important for allowing proactive mitigation of blind spots or bottlenecks and it is integral to optimising infrastructure and managing cloud risk without breaking the bank.

Cyber Security

The Human Factor: Why Cybersecurity is as Much About People as Technology

Published

1 week ago

January 15, 2025

Priyan Sampath

Global Entrepreneur Roman Ziemian explores why organisations must prioritise human awareness and culture to build a truly secure future. (more…)

Cyber Security

How Public-Private Collaborations Contribute to Cybercrime Disruption

Published

2 weeks ago

January 8, 2025

Prarthana Mary

Written by Derek Manky, Chief Security Strategist & Global VP Threat Intelligence | Board Advisor | Threat Alliances at FortiGuard Labs (more…)

Expert Speak

Combating Advanced Cyber Threats in the Middle East’s Financial Industry

Published

3 weeks ago

January 6, 2025

Edward Frank

The Middle East’s financial sector is increasingly a target for sophisticated cyberattacks, driven by numerous factors. Mobile financial services, online transactions, and emerging technologies like AI and cloud computing have expanded potential attack surfaces. As a result, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report, cybersecurity ranks among the top five global threats over the next two years, with banking systems as key targets.

For cybersecurity professionals working within the sector, the pressure doesn’t end there. New data protection laws, such as the three new policies being developed by the UAE Cybersecurity Council on “cloud computing and data security”, “Internet of Things security”, and “cybersecurity operations centres” demand that financial institutions rigorously protect customer data. However, the increasing sophistication of attacks, driven by AI, often outpaces the requirements of such regulations, let alone the time taken for them to come into force.

All this creates significant pressure on financial institutions to establish a best practice that enables them to secure their operations, reduce vulnerabilities and maintain consumer trust.

The Role of Regulations in Cybersecurity
Regulations heavily influence the financial sector’s cybersecurity strategies, often focusing on risk management. However, while threats evolve quickly, regulations tend to lag and take time to develop.

Traditional corporate security teams can no longer prevent breaches as swiftly as attackers compromise systems, and monitoring tools have limited ability to stop a threat. That’s because the time it takes for attackers to compromise and exfiltrate data is now quicker than the time it takes for an organisation to remediate, which is typically 4-6 days.

With the average data breach now costing around $4.45 million, financial institutions need a proactive cybersecurity strategy, not one that is reactive to regulation alone, including investment in advanced technologies to quickly detect and neutralise threats.

Financial institutions should only view regulatory requirements as a foundational baseline, rather than a comprehensive basis for defence. Within the financial sector, more than any other, proactive, threat-based strategies are essential.

AI: Both a Threat and a Solution
AI is reshaping business functions in financial services, enhancing the customer experience and operational efficiency, but it also introduces new security risks. Today, attackers are using AI for reconnaissance, social engineering, malicious code development and more. These tactics accelerate attacks, making them harder to combat with traditional cybersecurity measures.

Even within the security department, it has become a double-edged sword, aiding both cyber criminals and defenders. While many organisations adopt AI to improve operations, the technology also expands attack surfaces, allowing cybercriminals to automate and scale attacks.

By consolidating security products and shifting to a platform approach, AI-driven cybersecurity solutions can be best utilised to help institutions detect and respond to threats in real-time, protect data and be more agile in response to incoming regulation.

Communicating Cybersecurity Needs
To put the right solutions in place, security teams first need trust and investment and that means taking the cyber challenge to the board. C-level leaders in the financial sector often underestimate their cyber-resilience so effective communication from CISOs and CTOs about cybersecurity risks and investment needs is essential.

Maintaining trust is critical for any business that holds sensitive, personal or critical data. Where financial services institutions rely on reputation, any investment in cyber is a good investment. It means a reduction in risk from cyber attacks, which do carry financial implications, in addition to the fact that an effective security posture carries the potential for funds to be released from a business’s cyber insurance policy.

In the digital financial landscape, robust cybersecurity measures safeguard reputation, customer trust, and operational continuity. As digital transformation continues at pace, banks and other financial entities must embed security into every aspect of their operations – turning investments in AI and cybersecurity innovations into competitive advantages.