See the bigger picture to secure the distributed workforce

Originally published NOV, 2020. Updated AUG, 2024 with recent-CVE and industry research, including insights from the 2024 Vulnerability and Threat Trends Report.

The COVID pandemic changed the working paradigm. When it hit, millions of workers worldwide were forced to stay home, forever changing how we work. Organizations also had to figure out how to provide employees access but also protect their data when it was no longer secured by in-office protections. And teams that once could walk down the hall to chat had to navigate working in a virtual environment, leading to a siloed workforce.

While the dust has settled and the pandemic mindset has shifted, many organizations still offer a hybrid work environment. The challenges to secure this environment, compounded by the silos each team frequently works in, causes gaps in the network that could lead to devastating consequences. Ensuring both teams have a full view of their hybrid network allows them to better manage and secure a distributed workforce.

Security is on a knife-edge

Cybersecurity continues to be in the spotlight. The pandemic lead to a boom in virtual private network (VPN) usage, to allow remote employees to access corporate data from their home networks. But this critical tool isn’t free from flaws. When several Ivanti vulnerabilities were found and deemed high or critical severity with known exploits in the wild, it caused concern for even the most vigilant teams.

The challenge is that many security teams lack visibility. Combined with the overwhelming volume of vulnerabilities in their environment, it’s a struggle to stay ahead. Often, there is limited communication between the network and security team, so when there’s a critical vulnerability discovered, like with Ivanti, they may not be nimble and responsive enough to quickly mitigate risk. And this disconnect between teams brings greater risk to the organization; it only takes a few missteps to lead to a devastating incident.

A recent survey echoed this statement. It showed that more than half of IT and security decision-makers were concerned about the risk of a security incident due to a lack of collaboration between their network and security teams. This concern is well placed. The rapid expansion to the cloud, accelerated growth of IT assets, and a severe shortage of qualified personnel have left organizations struggling to deal effectively and proactively with potential attacks that could significantly damage their business and reputation. So, it’s no surprise that over 60% of the respondents also said they’d consider an integration solution that allows teams to work together. Business leaders understand that to better secure their organization, they must work together.

Moving forward

An ever-evolving threat landscape stokes fears about new vulnerabilities, exposures, and risks. A new vulnerability published every 17 minutes, hacking techniques are becoming more sophisticated, and threat actors are confident that they will be successful in their attempts to gain ransom. In 2023 alone, the National Vulnerability Database (NVD) documented 30,927 new Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs). Bad actors fully know how important it is for businesses to maintain continuity during the current crisis and are energized to take advantage of any weaknesses. To address this, security transformation is necessary.

It’s time for cybersecurity teams to move away from the days of detect-and-respond tactics. Before the pandemic, security practitioners were already struggling to detect every threat that reached the far edge of their outsized network perimeter and failing to respond quickly enough. Now, the flaws in the methodology have been fully exposed. Organizations have too much to manage. Leading CISOs know this, which is why they are actively developing proactive capabilities that will better enable them to prevent threats.

Security today is be defined by prevention. This can only be achieved with visibility, context-rich insights, collaboration, and focused automation across the entire fragmented estate. For some, getting there won’t be straightforward: it requires a change in mindset. However, while old habits die hard, an organization’s reputation will die harder if it experiences a breach. Thankfully, we will see the emergence of stronger, more resilient security programs. Forward-leaning organizations that are focused on developing holistic views of their fragmented environment will be better secured in the long-run.

They can see the bigger picture and limit opportunities for increasingly energized threat actors when they achieve this. They will also gain confidence in their ability to avoid regulatory fines, significantly limit the chance of falling foul of a data breach or ransomware attack and make better use of stretched resources. We’re on the verge of seeing a new and improved security model emerge.

Skybox’s continuous exposure management platform helps organizations remove silos and improve security through comprehensive visibility of their networks. By providing a network map of your hybrid attack surface, teams can more accurately assess, prioritize, and remediate the cyber threats that are most critical within their environment.