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Protecting an organization against every conceivable threat is rarely possible. There is a practically unlimited number of potential... Uncategorized Risk Management in Network Security: 7 Best Practices for 2024 Tsippi Dach 2 min read Tsippi Dach Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 1/26/24 Published Protecting an organization against every conceivable threat is rarely possible. There is a practically unlimited number of potential threats in the world, and security leaders don’t have unlimited resources available to address them. Prioritizing risks associated with more severe potential impact allows leaders to optimize cybersecurity decision-making and improve the organization’s security posture. Cybersecurity risk management is important because many security measures come with large costs. Before you can implement security controls designed to protect against cyberattacks and other potential risks, you must convince key stakeholders to support the project. Having a structured approach to cyber risk management lets you demonstrate exactly how your proposed changes impact the organization’s security risk profile. This makes it much easier to calculate the return on cybersecurity investment – making it a valuable tool when communicating with board members and executives. Here are seven tips every security leader should keep in mind when creating a risk management strategy: Cultivate a security-conscious risk management culture Use risk registers to describe potential risks in detail Prioritize proactive, low-cost risk remediation when possible Treat risk management as an ongoing process Invest in penetration testing to discover new vulnerabilities Demonstrate risk tolerance by implementing the NIST Cybersecurity Framework Don’t forget to consider false positives in your risk assessment What is a Risk Management Strategy? The first step to creating a comprehensive risk management plan is defining risk. According to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) risk is “the effect of uncertainty on objectives”. This definition is accurate, but its scope is too wide. Uncertainty is everywhere, including things like market conditions, natural disasters, or even traffic jams. As a cybersecurity leader, your risk management process is more narrowly focused on managing risks to information systems, protecting sensitive data, and preventing unauthorized access. Your risk management program should focus on identifying these risks, assessing their potential impact, and creating detailed plans for addressing them. This might include deploying tools for detecting cyberattacks, implementing policies to prevent them, or investing in incident response and remediation tools to help you recover from them after they occur. In many cases, you’ll be doing all of these things at once. Crucially, the information you uncover in your cybersecurity risk assessment will help you prioritize these initiatives and decide how much to spend on them. Your risk management framework will provide you with the insight you need to address high-risk, high-impact cybersecurity threats first and manage low-risk, low-impact threats later on. 7 Tips for Creating a Comprehensive Risk Management Strategy 1. Cultivate a security-conscious risk management culture No CISO can mitigate security risks on their own. Every employee counts on their colleagues, partners, and supervisors to keep sensitive data secure and prevent data breaches. Creating a risk management strategy is just one part of the process of developing a security-conscious culture that informs risk-based decision-making. This is important because many employees have to make decisions that impact security on a daily basis. Not all of these decisions are critical-severity security scenarios, but even small choices can influence the way the entire organization handles risk. For example, most organizations list their employees on LinkedIn. This is not a security threat on its own, but it can contribute to security risks associated with phishing attacks and social engineering . Cybercriminals may create spoof emails inviting employees to fake webinars hosted by well-known employees, and use the malicious link to infect employee devices with malware. Cultivating a risk management culture won’t stop these threats from happening, but it might motivate employees to reach out when they suspect something is wrong. This gives security teams much greater visibility into potential risks as they occur, and increases the chance you’ll detect and mitigate threats before they launch active cyberattacks. 2. Use risk registers to describe potential risks in detail A risk register is a project management tool that describes risks that could disrupt a project during execution. Project managers typically create the register during the project planning phase and then refer to it throughout execution. A risk register typically uses the following characteristics to describe individual risks: Description : A brief overview of the risk itself. Category: The formal classification of the risk and what it affects. Likelihood: How likely this risk is to take place. Analysis: What would happen if this risk occurred. Mitigation: What would the team need to do to respond in this scenario. Priority: How critical is this risk compared to others. The same logic applies to business initiatives both large and small. Using a risk register can help you identify and control unexpected occurrences that may derail the organization’s ongoing projects. If these projects are actively supervised by a project manager, risk registers should already exist for them. However, there may be many initiatives, tasks, and projects that do not have risk registers. In these cases, you may need to create them yourself. Part of the overall risk assessment process should include finding and consolidating these risk registers to get an idea of the kinds of disruptions that can take place at every level of the organization. You may find patterns in the types of security risks that you find described in multiple risk registers. This information should help you evaluate the business impact of common risks and find ways to mitigate those risks effectively. 3. Prioritize proactive, low-cost risk remediation when possible Your organization can’t afford to prevent every single risk there is. That would require an unlimited budget and on-demand access to technical specialist expertise. However, you can prevent certain high-impact risks using proactive, low-cost policies that can make a significant difference in your overall security posture. You should take these opportunities when they present themselves. Password policies are a common example. Many organizations do not have sufficiently robust password policies in place. Cybercriminals know this –that’s why dictionary-based credential attacks still occur. If employees are reusing passwords across accounts or saving them onto their devices in plaintext, it’s only a matter of time before hackers notice. At the same time, upgrading a password policy is not an especially expensive task. Even deploying an enterprise-wide password manager and investing in additional training may be several orders of magnitude cheaper than implementing a new SIEM or similarly complex security platform. Your cybersecurity risk assessment will likely uncover many opportunities like this one. Take a close look at things like password policies, change management , and security patch update procedures and look for easy, low-cost projects that can provide immediate security benefits without breaking your budget. Once you address these issues, you will be in a much better position to pursue larger, more elaborate security implementations. 4. Treat risk management as an ongoing process Every year, cybercriminals leverage new tactics and techniques against their victims. Your organization’s security team must be ready to address the risks of emerging malware, AI-enhanced phishing messages, elaborate supply chain attacks, and more. As hackers improve their attack methodologies, your organization’s risk profile shifts. As the level of risk changes, your approach to information security must change as well. This means developing standards and controls that adjust according to your organization’s actual information security risk environment. Risk analysis should not be a one-time event, but a continuous one that delivers timely results about where your organization is today – and where it may be in the future. For example, many security teams treat firewall configuration and management as a one-time process. This leaves them vulnerable to emerging threats that they may not have known about during the initial deployment. Part of your risk management strategy should include verifying existing security solutions and protecting them from new and emerging risks. 5. Invest in penetration testing to discover new vulnerabilities There is more to discovering new risks than mapping your organization’s assets to known vulnerabilities and historical data breaches. You may be vulnerable to zero-day exploits and other weaknesses that won’t be immediately apparent. Penetration testing will help you discover and assess risks that you can’t find out about otherwise. Penetration testing mitigates risk by pinpointing vulnerabilities in your environment and showing how hackers could exploit them. Your penetration testing team will provide a comprehensive report showing you what assets were compromised and how. You can then use this information to close those security gaps and build a stronger security posture as a result. There are multiple kinds of penetration testing. Depending on your specific scenario and environment, you may invest in: External network penetration testing focuses on the defenses your organization deploys on internet-facing assets and equipment. The security of any business application exposed to the public may be assessed through this kind of test. Internal network penetration testing determines how cybercriminals may impact the organization after they gain access to your system and begin moving laterally through it. This also applies to malicious insiders and compromised credential attacks. Social engineering testing looks specifically at how employees respond to attackers impersonating customers, third-party vendors, and internal authority figures. This will help you identify risks associated with employee security training . Web application testing focuses on your organization’s web-hosted applications. This can provide deep insight into how secure your web applications are, and whether they can be leveraged to leak sensitive information. 6. Demonstrate risk tolerance by implementing the NIST Cybersecurity Framework The National Institute of Standards and Technology publishes one of the industry’s most important compliance frameworks for cybersecurity risk mitigation. Unlike similar frameworks like PCI DSS and GDPR, the NIST Cybersecurity Framework is voluntary – you are free to choose when and how you implement its controls in your organization. This set of security controls includes a comprehensive, flexible approach to risk management. It integrates risk management techniques across multiple disciplines and combines them into an effective set of standards any organization can follow. As of 2023, the NIST Risk Management Framework focuses on seven steps: Prepare the organization to change the way it secures its information technology solutions. Categorize each system and the type of information it processes according to a risk and impact analysis/ Select which NIST SP 800-53 controls offer the best data protection for the environment. Implement controls and document their deployment. Assess whether the correct controls are in place and operating as intended. Authorize the implementation in partnership with executives, stakeholders, and IT decision-makers. Monitor control implementations and IT systems to assess their effectiveness and discover emerging risks. 7. Don’t forget to consider false positives in your risk assessment False positives refer to vulnerabilities and activity alerts that have been incorrectly flagged. They can take many forms during the cybersecurity risk assessment process – from vulnerabilities that don’t apply to your organization’s actual tech stack to legitimate traffic getting blocked by firewalls. False positives can impact risk assessments in many ways. The most obvious problem they present is skewing your assessment results. This may lead to you prioritizing security controls against threats that aren’t there. If these controls are expensive or time-consuming to deploy, you may end up having an uncomfortable conversation with key stakeholders and decision-makers later on. However, false positives are also a source of security risks. This is especially true with automated systems like next-generation firewalls , extended detection and response (XDR) solutions, and Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) platforms. Imagine one of these systems detects an outgoing video call from your organization. It flags the connection as suspicious and begins investigating it. It discovers the call is being made from an unusual location and contains confidential data, so it blocks the call and terminates the connection. This could be a case of data exfiltration, or it could be the company CEO presenting a report to stockholders while traveling. Most risk assessments don’t explore the potential risk of blocking high-level executive communications or other legitimate communications due to false positives. Use AlgoSec to Identify and Assess Network Security Risks More Accurately Building a comprehensive risk management strategy is not an easy task. It involves carefully observing the way your organization does business and predicting how cybercriminals may exploit those processes. It demands familiarity with almost every task, process, and technology the organization uses, and the ability to simulate attack scenarios from multiple different angles. There is no need to accomplish these steps manually. Risk management platforms like AlgoSec’s Firewall Analyzer can help you map business applications throughout your network and explore attack simulations with detailed “what-if” scenarios. Use Firewall Analyzer to gain deep insight into how your organization would actually respond to security incidents and unpredictable events, then use those insights to generate a more complete risk management approach. Schedule a demo Related Articles Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 5 Multi-Cloud Environments Cloud Security Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Convergence didn’t fail, compliance did. Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

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14 Step Checklist for a Flawless Network Security Audit If security policies aren’t periodically updated to meet modern threat demands,... Cyber Attacks & Incident Response 14 Step Checklist for a Flawless Network Security Audit Tsippi Dach 2 min read Tsippi Dach Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 12/20/23 Published 14 Step Checklist for a Flawless Network Security Audit If security policies aren’t periodically updated to meet modern threat demands, organizations risk introducing vulnerabilities into their IT security posture. Comprehensive audit reports help security leaders gain in-depth visibility into their organization’s cybersecurity strategy and assess the resilience of its network infrastructure . Network Security Audit Checklist: What Does Your IT Security Audit Need to Cover? Cybersecurity audits demand an extensive overview of the organization’s security posture and risk profile. It requires gathering and analyzing network data to identify security vulnerabilities, monitor access controls, and assess potential threats. It also includes an overview of operational security practices, penetration testing results, and incident response playbooks . Ultimately, comprehensive risk assessment data should guide the organization towards improving its security measures and preventing hackers from breaching critical data and assets. A complete network security audit should include provide in-depth visibility into the following: Security controls and their implementation. The availability of network devices and access points. High-impact security risks and their potential consequences. The effectiveness of information security management processes. Performance data on security systems and network assets like firewalls. What Do Network Security Audits Help You Achieve? Conducting in-depth security audits helps security leaders identify data breach risks and develop plans for managing those risks. Audit results play an incredibly important role in preventative risk management and in the remediation of cyberattacks. Organizations that regularly conduct these kinds of assessments are better equipped to address the security weaknesses that might arise when onboarding new users, adding new endpoints to the network, or installing new apps. Network audits and security assessments can also help you achieve other important goals as well, such as: Identifying network performance issues and addressing them to improve overall performance. Unlocking opportunities to leverage network assets and mobile devices more efficiently. Demonstrating compliance with regulatory frameworks like the NIST Cybersecurity Framework 1.1 , ISO 27001 and 27002 , and SOC 2 Type 2 . Present security performance information to core stakeholders to demonstrate the value of security policies and controls. Update system security processes to address new vulnerabilities and potential threats. Recommended Read: 20 Best Network Security Solutions + FAQs How to Perform a Network Security Audit The network audit process involves collecting data, analyzing it to identify potential threats, and using it to compile a formal audit report. Depending on the size and complexity of the organization, this audit may be performed by an individual network analyst, a third-party IT security audit specialist, or an entire team of internal security professionals. These are the steps that make up a typical network audit: 1. Plan for the audit and inform everyone involved The audit process will involve many different types of technical tasks. The specific steps you take will change depending on the complexity of your network and the specialist talent required to assess data security in different IT contexts. You will need to verify authentication protocols, operating system security, password policies, and more. It’s rare for an individual security auditor to have all the technical skills necessary to do this on every app, device, and platform an organization uses. In most cases, you’ll need to work with other employees, third-party service providers, and other stakeholders to obtain the data you need. 2. Document all procedures and processes associated with the audit Recording every process that takes place during the audit is crucial. When preparing your final report, you may want to go back and verify some of the processes that took place to ensure the fidelity and accuracy of your data. If methodological errors creep into your data, they can skew your final report’s findings and end up damaging your ability to secure sensitive data correctly. Documentation is especially important in network security audits because you are looking for systematic flaws in the way user accounts, network assets, and security systems interact with one another. These flaws may not reveal themselves without clear documentation. 3. Review standard operating procedures and how they are managed Protecting sensitive information and critical network assets from security threats takes more than sophisticated technology. It also requires strict adherence to security policies and best practices from human users. Security audits should verify that employees and third-party providers are observing security policies in their operating procedures, and provide evidence attesting to that fact. Reviewing the organization’s procedure management system should provide key insight into whether users are following procedures or not. If they are not, there is a high risk of shadow IT processes leading to phishing attacks and security breaches. This should be reported so that the security team can find ways to remediate these threats. 4. Assess the training logs and operations Human error is behind eight out of ten cyberattacks . All customer-facing employees should be trained to detect phishing and social engineering attacks, and internal staff should know how to prevent malware from infecting the network. Every employee should understand how their role contributes to the security profile of the organization as a whole. Verifying authentication processes, permissions, and password policy is also part of employee training. Every user account should be protected by a consistent policy that follows the latest guidelines for beating brute force and dictionary-based credential attacks. Data encryption policies should keep sensitive login credentials secure even if hackers successfully compromise network assets. 5. Confirm the security patches for network software are up-to-date Start by creating a list of every software application used on the network. This can be a long, time-consuming manual process, but there are automated vulnerability scanning solutions that can help you automate this step. You will have to investigate each item on the list and determine whether new security patches are installed in a reasonably tight time frame. Keep in mind that cybercriminals often exploit security patch releases by scanning for organizations that delay installing new patches. Patch release changelogs essentially broadcast known vulnerabilities directly to hackers, so exploiting late patch installations is a trivial task. 6. Confirm the penetration testing policy and process is sufficient Penetration testing is one of the best ways to identify vulnerabilities on a network. If your organization has invested in pentesting initiatives, you will need to review and confirm its policies as part of the network security audit process. If you haven’t yet invested in pentesting, you may wish to outline a potential path for incorporating it into your security processes here. You may wish to verify the size and scope of your pentesting processes at this point. Assess some of the vulnerabilities you have uncovered and determine whether the organization is investing the appropriate resources into pentesting, or whether other security initiatives should take precedence. 7. Identify gaps and misconfigurations in your firewall policies Your organization’s firewalls play an important role managing traffic between network assets. Firewall rules should not be static. They must be continuously updated to meet the needs of the organization as it changes and grows. These devices can enforce bring your own device (BYOD) mobile policies, prevent distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, and contribute to proper network segmentation. Manually configuring firewall policies can be costly and time-consuming. Consider using an automated change management platform like AlgoSec Firewall Analyzer to rapidly identify potential vulnerabilities in your firewall rules. Document any changes you make and include those updates in your report. 8. Ensure all sensitive and confidential data is stored securely Every organization has to store some form of sensitive or confidential data. A major goal of network security audits is making sure this data is kept separate from non-sensitive data and protected by a higher standard of security. This data includes individuals’ names, addresses, phone numbers, financial information, and government ID data. Access to sensitive data should be only allowed when critical for business purposes, and every action involving sensitive data should generate comprehensive logs. The data itself should be encrypted so that even if attackers successfully breach the database, they won’t be able to use the data itself. It may also be worth considering an enterprise data backup solution to provide a failsafe in the event of a disaster. 9. Encrypt the hard disks on any company laptops Portable devices like laptops should not generally hold sensitive data. However, many employees can’t work without processing some amount of sensitive data and storing it on the local hard drive. This is usually less than critical data, but it can still contribute to a cyberattack if it falls into the wrong hands. Encrypting laptop hard disks can help prevent that from happening. If all the data on the device is encrypted, then the organization can avoid triggering a crisis-level security incident every time an employee misplaces or loses a company device. 10. Check the security of your wireless networks Wireless network security is vital for preventing hackers from conducting phishing attacks against employees and on-premises customers. If your organization’s Wi-Fi network is not secured, hackers can spoof the network and trick users into giving up vital information without their knowledge. All modern Wi-Fi equipment supports multiple security protocols. Avoid WEP and WPA – these are old protocols with well-known security vulnerabilities – and make sure your networks are using WPA2. If the organization has equipment that does not support WPA2, you must upgrade the equipment. 11. Scan for and identify any unauthorized access points Your network may have access points that were never set up or approved by the organization. Cybercriminals can use these unauthorized access points to steal data without triggering exfiltration alerts. Additional Wi-Fi frequencies are a common culprit here – your private Wi-Fi network may be configured to use the 2.4 GHz band even though you have equipment that supports 5 GHz frequencies. If someone sets up an access point on the 5 GHz frequency, you can easily overlook it. Data breaches can occur over a wide variety of similar media. USB and Bluetooth-enabled devices have introduced malware into corporate networks in the past. Your security audit should cover as many of these communication channels as possible. 12. Review the event log monitoring process The best way to verify security events is by analyzing the logs generated by network assets as they respond to user interactions. These logs can tell you who accessed sensitive data and report where and when that access took place. Security analysts can connect log data across applications to contextualize security incidents and understand how they took place. The problem is that even a small organization with a simple network can generate an enormous volume of log data every day. Your security audit should investigate the event log monitoring process and look for opportunities to streamline it. You may consider implementing a security information and event management (SIEM) platform or improving your existing one. 13. Compile a comprehensive report Once you’ve gathered all the relevant data and included your insight into the organization’s security posture, you are ready to create your audit report. This report should compile all of your findings into a single well-organized document, with evidence supporting the claims you make and clear recommendations for improving operational security moving forward. Consider creating customized data visualizations to showcase how key performance metrics change over time. The way you choose to communicate data can have a major impact on the way it is received, potentially convincing key stakeholders to implement the changes you suggest. 14. Send the final report to appropriate stakeholders and other key parties. Once you’ve finished your network security audit, you are ready to send it to your organization’s leaders and any other stakeholders who have an interest in your findings. Be prepared to explain your recommendations and justify the methods you used to collect and analyze the organization’s security data. The more confident you are in the accuracy of your findings, the better-equipped you’ll be to present them if called upon. Schedule a demo Related Articles Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 5 Multi-Cloud Environments Cloud Security Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Convergence didn’t fail, compliance did. Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

Explore Algosec's customer success stories to see how organizations worldwide improve security, compliance, and efficiency with our solutions. Leading payment solutions company credits AlgoSec for increasing security and compliance Organization Payment Solutions Industry Financial Services Headquarters Download case study Share Customer
success stories "Leading fintech company rapidly improves security and compliance with AlgoSec jumpstart program" Background The company is one of the largest payment solutions providers, with offices processing more than 28 billion transactions worldwide. The company services 800,000 merchant outlets that generate $120 billion in processing volume. Its businesses include credit card processing, merchant acquisition and issuance of bank credit cards. The company grew to its enormous size through innovation and acquisition. It has introduced modern technology into the payments industry and has acquired many innovative companies over the last three decades. Challenges Today, the company operates 10 data centers with varying security architectures and firewall equipment from different vendors. The security staff is currently in the process of a cross-company firewall consolidation that will take several years to complete. The company is automating its change management of firewall rules to cut down on the time and effort spent on researching and implementing rules to keep up with its fast growth. It deploys rule changes during tight, scheduled “push windows” and conducts compliance reviews twice per year. The firewall change process is highly complex with many steps: Request Design Peer Review Management Approval Implementation Validation Success for the security team is all about time. They seek to automate the process by reducing time spent on: Research and writing rules Peer reviews Staging Security peering after staging Firewall push window requirements Quarterly firewall ruleset reviews as part of compliance objectives Solution The security team acquired AlgoSec Firewall Analyzer (AFA) and deployed it at two of its data centers in Arizona and Colorado. In both locations, the company is in the process of firewall migration to consolidate on one vendor. However, they need to add firewall clusters one at a time after each migration instead of all at once. The company took advantage of AlgoSec’s Jumpstart Program that delivers the benefits of AlgoSec Firewall Analyzer in conjunction with other AlgoSec solutions quickly. With Jumpstart, the company is quickly able to: Automate the discovery and mapping of enterprise applications Automate the change management processes Adopt the new processes across the company Realize rapid ROI The company’s lead security infrastructure consultant proclaimed, “AlgoSec customized their Jumpstart Program just for us. Their people are engaged, personable, skilled and highly efficient. They became part of our team dedicated to our success.” In addition to getting Firewall Analyzer up and running quickly and delivering its benefits, the Jumpstart team’s AFA deployment immediately identified network security gaps and helped the company close them, making them more secure and compliant. Results AlgoSec Firewall Analyzer is achieving all the goals of the security team. Time for policy writing reduced from 90 hours to 15 hours – 83% less Cut the total process time by half, enabling the security team to keep up with the barrage of change requests. Reduced the admin overhead from 30 to 4 – 87% less “Automation is definitely the way to go,” declared their security consultant. “We can now stay on top of the process even while we migrate our firewalls. We are looking for more from AlgoSec.” The company is now in the process of implementing AlgoSec FireFlow (AFF) to enhance the existing change management system with intelligent network and security automation. AlgoSec FireFlow enforces compliance and automatically documents the entire change-management lifecycle. Some of the features include: Processing of firewall changes with zero-touch automation Elimination of mistakes and rework, and improvement of accountability for change requests Proactive assessment of the impact of network changes to ensure security and continuous compliance Automation of the rule–recertification processes Schedule time with one of our experts

Compared to on-premises data storage, cloud computing comes with a lot of benefits. On-demand access to company data, flexibility, and... Cloud Security What is a Cloud Security Assessment? (and How to Perform One) Rony Moshkovich 2 min read Rony Moshkovich Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 7/12/23 Published Compared to on-premises data storage, cloud computing comes with a lot of benefits. On-demand access to company data, flexibility, and fast collaboration are just a few. But along with these advantages come increased security risks. To manage them, companies should invest in regular cloud security assessments. What Is a Cloud Security Risk Assessment? A cloud security assessment evaluates the potential vulnerabilities of an organization’s cloud environment. These assessments are essential to mitigate risks and ensure the continued security of cloud-based systems. By looking at cloud applications, services, and data, companies can better understand the biggest threats to their cloud environment. By managing these threats, businesses can avoid costly workflow interruptions. A security assessment can be done by an organization’s internal security team or by an outside security expert. This can happen one time only, or it can be done regularly as part of an organization’s overall cybersecurity plan. How Do Cloud Security Risk Assessments Protect Your Business? Cloud-based systems and services are an essential part of most businesses nowadays. Unfortunately, what makes them convenient is also what makes them vulnerable to security threats. A cloud security risk assessment helps organizations find out what might go wrong and prevent it from happening. It also helps with prioritizing and managing the most serious issues before they become full-on data breaches. One way assessments do this is by identifying misconfigurations. Cloud misconfigurations are behind many security breaches. They result from errors introduced by network engineers working on early cloud systems. A cloud security assessment earmarks these and other outmoded security features for repair. What’s more, cloud security assessments identify third-party risks from APIs or plugins. When your company identifies risks and manages permissions, you keep your cloud environment safe. By mitigating third-party risks, you can still benefit from outside vendors. Of course, none of this information is valuable without employee education. Employees need to know about risks and how to stop them; this is the best way to reduce the number of security incidents caused by human error or carelessness. To put it simply, a cloud security assessment helps your business run smoothly. When you know the risks your company faces and can manage them, you reduce the impact of security-related incidents. That means you can recover faster and get back to work sooner. 7 Benefits of Cloud Security Risk Assessments Cloud security risk assessments provide lots of benefits. They can help you: Improve cloud security posture . Understanding the ins and outs of a cloud-based system helps organizations plan better. For example, they can modify their security budget or improve their risk management strategy based on the results. Uncover security vulnerabilities . Cloud security assessments pinpoint weak spots. This includes misconfigurations , access control issues, and missing multi-factor authentications (MFAs). Once identified, organizations can fix the issues and avoid security breaches. Develop a more secure multi-cloud environment . Most organizations use multiple cloud platforms. Usually, this involves private or public clouds or a combination of both. This is ideal from a financial and agility perspective. But every extra layer in a cloud environment introduces potential risks. A cloud security assessment is essential in identifying these cross-cloud threats. Achieve compliance with industry standards and regulatory bodies . Ensuring compliance with GDPR, PCI-DSS, and HIPAA helps protect organizations from millions of dollars of potential fines . Manage your reputation. A sensitive data leak or other cloud security incident damages a company’s reputation. Think of companies like Target, Facebook, and LinkedIn. All have faced backlash after security breaches . Conducting cloud security assessments shows that organizations value customer and stakeholder privacy. Detect past threats . A cloud security assessment looks for things that might be wrong with the way your cloud system is set up. It can also help you find out if there have been any past security problems. By doing this, you can see if someone has tried to tamper with the security of your cloud system in the past, which could signal a bigger problem. Increase efficiency . Cloud security assessments show you which security measures are working and which aren’t. By getting rid of security tools that aren’t needed, employees have more time to work on other tasks. Cost savings . The most compelling reason to run a cloud security assessment is that it helps save money. Cost savings come from eliminating unnecessary security measures and from missed work time due to breaches. What Risks Do Cloud Security Assessments Look For? Cloud security assessments focus on six areas to identify security vulnerabilities in your cloud infrastructure: overall security posture, access control and management, incident management, data protection, network security, and risk management and compliance. Some specific risks cloud security assessments look for include: Cloud Misconfigurations Misconfigurations are one of the most common threats to overall security posture. In fact, McAfee’s enterprise security study found that enterprises experience 3,500 security incidents per month because of misconfigurations. From improperly stored passwords to insecure automated backups, misconfiguration issues are everywhere. Because they’re so common, fixing this issue alone can reduce the risk of a security breach by up to 80%, according to Gartner . Access Control and Management Problems This assessment also highlights ineffective access control and management. One way it does this is by identifying excessive network permissions. Without the proper guardrails (like data segmentation) in place, an organization’s attack surface is greater. Plus, its data is at risk from internal and external threats. If an employee has too much access to a company’s network, they might accidentally delete or change important information. This could cause unintended system problems. Additionally, if hackers get access to the company’s network, they could easily steal important data. Cloud security assessments also look at credentials as part of user account management. A system that uses only static credentials for users or cloud workloads is a system at risk. Without multifactor authentication (MFA) in place, hackers can gain access to your system and expose your data. Improper Incident Management and Logging When it comes to incident management, a cloud security assessment can reveal insufficient or improper logging — problems that make detecting malicious activities more difficult. Left unchecked, the damage is more severe, making recovery more time-consuming and expensive. Insufficient Data and Network Security Data protection and network security go hand in hand. Without proper network controls in place (for example firewalls and intrusion detection), data in the cloud is vulnerable to attack. A cloud security assessment can identify gaps in both areas. Based on the results of a cloud security assessment, a company can make a risk management plan to help them react as quickly and effectively as possible in the event of an attack. The last aspect of cloud security the assessment looks at is compliance with industry standards. 7 Steps To Perform a Cloud Security Assessment The main components of cloud security assessments include: Identifying your cloud-based assets, discovering vulnerabilities through testing, generating recommendations, and retesting once the issues have been addressed. The steps to performing a cloud security assessment are as follows: Step One: Define the project Get a picture of your cloud environment. Look at your cloud service providers (CSPs), third-party apps, and current security tools. First, decide which parts of your system will be evaluated. Next, look at the type of data you’re handling or storing. Then consider the regulations your business must follow. Step Two: Identify potential threats Look at both internal and external threats to your cloud-based system. This could include endpoint security, misconfigurations, access control issues, data breaches, and more. Then figure out how likely each type of attack is. Finally, determine what impact each attack would have on your business operations. Step Three: Examine your current security system Look for vulnerabilities in your existing cloud security. In particular, pay attention to access controls, encryption, and network security. Step Four: Test Penetration testing, port scanners, and vulnerability scanners are used to find weaknesses in your cloud environment that were missed during the original risk assessment. Step Five: Analyze Look at the results and determine which weaknesses need immediate attention. Deal with the issues that will have the biggest impact on your business first. Then, focus on the issues most likely to occur. Finish by handling lower-priority threats. Step Six: Develop an action plan Come up with a time-bound remediation plan. This plan should spell out how your organization will deal with each security vulnerability. Assign roles and responsibilities as part of your incident response program. Depending on the results, this could include updating firewalls, monitoring traffic logs, and limiting access control. Step Seven: Maintain Cloud security assessments can be done as a one-off, but it’s much better to monitor your systems regularly. Frequent monitoring improves your organization’s threat intelligence. It also helps you identify and respond to new threats in real time. Getting Help With Your Cloud Security Assessment Cloud security assessment tools are used to identify vulnerabilities in a cloud infrastructure which could lead to data loss or compromise by attackers. As an agentless cloud security posture management (CSPM) tool , Prevasio helps identify and fix security threats across all your cloud assets in minutes. Our deep cloud scan checks for security weaknesses, malware, and compliance. This helps ensure that your company’s cloud environment is protected against potential risks. But any CSPM can do that . Prevasio is the only solution that provides container security dynamic behavior analysis. Our technology spots hidden backdoors in your container environments. It also identifies supply chain attack risks. Paired with our container security static analysis for vulnerabilities and malware, your containers will never be safer. Our CSPM works across multi-cloud, multi-accounts, cloud-native services , and cloud assets. Whether you’re using Microsoft Azure, S3 buckets in AWS, or Cosmos DB in GCP, Prevasio is the security system your company has been looking for. But we do more than identify security threats. We increase your team’s efficiency. How? By providing a prioritized list of cloud risks ranked according to CIS benchmarks. That means no more uncertainty about what needs to get done. Our easy-to-understand results help your team concentrate on the most important things. This saves time and money by reducing the need for extra administrative work. A Final Word on Cloud Security Assessments Performing regular cloud security assessments helps your business spot security issues before they become major problems. When you reinforce your security controls and define your incident response plan, you make your organization more efficient. Plus, you keep things going even when issues arise. Put together, these proactive measures can save you money. Sign up today and see how Prevasio can help your team ! FAQs About Cloud Security Assessments What are the four areas of cloud security? The four pillars of cloud security are data availability, data confidentiality, data integrity, and regulatory compliance. What is included in a security assessment? Cloud security assessments include: Identifying your cloud-based assets, discovering vulnerabilities through testing, generating recommendations, and retesting once the issues have been addressed. Schedule a demo Related Articles Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 5 Multi-Cloud Environments Cloud Security Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Convergence didn’t fail, compliance did. Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

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As organizations respond to an ever-evolving set of security threats, network teams are scrambling to find new ways to keep up with... Auditing and Compliance Continuous compliance monitoring best practices Tsippi Dach 2 min read Tsippi Dach Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 3/19/23 Published As organizations respond to an ever-evolving set of security threats, network teams are scrambling to find new ways to keep up with numerous standards and regulations to dodge their next compliance audit violation. Can this nightmare be avoided? Yes, and it’s not as complex as one might think if you take a “compliance first” approach . It may not come as a surprise to many, but the number of cyber attacks is increasing every year and with it the risk to companies’ financial, organizational, and reputational standing. What’s at stake? The stakes are high when it comes to cyber security compliance. A single data breach can result in massive financial losses, damage to a company’s reputation, and even jail time for executives. Data breaches: Data breaches are expensive and becoming even more so by the day. According to the Ponemon Institute’s 2022 Cost of a Data Breach Report , the average cost of a data breach is $4.35 million. Fraud: Identity fraud is one of the most pressing cybersecurity threats today. In large organizations, the scale of fraud is also usually large, resulting in huge losses causing depletion of profitability. In a recent survey done by PwC, nearly one in five organizations said that their most disruptive incident cost over $50 million*. Theft: Identity theft is on the rise and can be the first step towards compromising a business. According a study from Javelin Strategy & Research found that identity fraud costs US businesses an estimated total of $56 billion* in 2021. What’s the potential impact? The potential impact of non-compliance can be devastating to an organization. Financial penalties, loss of customers, and damage to reputation are just a few of the possible consequences. To avoid these risks, organizations must make compliance a priority and take steps to ensure that they are meeting all relevant requirements. Legal impact:  Regulatory or legal action brought against the organization or its employees that could result in fines, penalties, imprisonment, product seizures, or debarment.  Financial impact:  Negative impacts with regard to the organization’s bottom line, share price, potential future earnings, or loss of investor confidence.  Business impact:  Adverse events, such as embargos or plant shutdowns, could significantly disrupt the organization’s ability to operate.  Reputational impact:  Damage to the organization’s reputation or brand—for example, bad press or social-media discussion, loss of customer trust, or decreased employee morale.  How can this be avoided? In order to stay ahead of the ever-expanding regulatory requirements, organizations must adopt a “compliance first” approach to cyber security. This means enforcing strict compliance criteria and taking immediate action to address any violations to ensure data is protected. Some of these measures include the following: Risk assessment: Conduct ongoing monitoring of compliance posture (risk assessment) and conduct regular internal audits (ensuring adherence with regulatory and legislative requirements (HIPAA, GDPR, PCI DSS, SOX, etc.) Documentation: Enforce continuous tracking of changes and intent Annual audits: Commission 3rd party annual audits to ensure adherence with regulatory and legislative requirements (HIPAA, GDPR, PCI DSS, SOX, etc.) Conclusion and next steps Compliance violations are no laughing matter. They can result in fines, business loss, and even jail time in extreme cases. They can be difficult to avoid unless you take the right steps to avoid them. You have a complex set of rules and regulations to follow as well as numerous procedures, processes, and policies. And if you don’t stay on top of things, you can end up with a compliance violation mess that is difficult to untangle. Fortunately, there are ways to reduce the risk of being blindsided by a compliance violation mess with your organization. Now that you know the risks and what needs to be done, here are six best practices for achieving it. External links: $50 million $56 billion Schedule a demo Related Articles Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 5 Multi-Cloud Environments Cloud Security Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Convergence didn’t fail, compliance did. Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

Tal Dayan, security expert for AlgoSec, discusses the secret to passing audits seamlessly and how to introduce automated compliance... Auditing and Compliance Compliance Made Easy: How to improve your risk posture with automated audits Tal Dayan 2 min read Tal Dayan Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 4/29/21 Published Tal Dayan, security expert for AlgoSec, discusses the secret to passing audits seamlessly and how to introduce automated compliance Compliance standards come in many different shapes and sizes. Some organizations set their own internal policies, while others are subject to regimented global frameworks such as PCI DSS , which protects customers’ card payment details; SOX to safeguard financial information or HIPAA , which protects patients’ healthcare data. Regardless of which industry you operate in, regular auditing is key to ensuring your business retains its risk posture whilst also remaining compliant. The problem is that running manual risk and security audits can be a long, drawn-out, and tedious affair. A 2020 report from Coalfire and Omdia  found that for the majority of organizations, growing compliance obligations are now consuming 40% or more of IT security budgets and threaten to become an unsustainable cost.  The report suggests two reasons for this growing compliance burden.  First, compliance standards are changing from point-in-time reviews to continuous, outcome-based requirements. Second, the ongoing cyber-skills shortage is stretching organizations’ abilities to keep up with compliance requirements. This means businesses tend to leave them until the last moment, leading to a rushed audit that isn’t as thorough as it could be, putting your business at increased risk of a penalty fine or, worse, a data breach that could jeopardize the entire organization. The auditing process itself consists of a set of requirements that must be created for organizations to measure themselves against. Each rule must be manually analyzed and simulated before it can be implemented and used in the real world. As if that wasn’t time-consuming enough, every single edit to a rule must also be logged meticulously. That is why automation plays a key role in the auditing process. By striking the right balance between automated and manual processes, your business can achieve continuous compliance and produce audit reports seamlessly. Here is a six-step strategy that can set your business on the path to sustainable and successful ongoing auditing preservation: Step 1: Gather information This step will be the most arduous but once completed it will become much easier to sustain. This is when you’ll need to gather things like security policies, firewall access logs, documents from previous audits and firewall vendor information – effectively everything you’d normally factor into a manual security audit. Step 2: Define a clear change management process A good change management process is essential to ensure traceability and accountability when it comes to firewall changes. This process should confirm that every change is properly authorized and logged as and when it occurs, providing a picture of historical changes and approvals. Step 3: Audit physical & OS security With the pandemic causing a surge in the number of remote workers and devices used, businesses must take extra care to certify that every endpoint is secured and up-to-date with relevant security patches. Crucially, firewall and management services should also be physically protected, with only designated personnel permitted to access them. Step 4: Clean up & organize rule base As with every process, the tidier it is, the more efficient it is. Document rules and naming conventions should be enforced to ensure the rule base is as organized as possible, with identical rules consolidated to keep things concise. Step 5: Assess & remediate risk Now it’s time to assess each rule and identify those that are particularly risky and prioritize them by severity. Are there any that violate corporate security policies? Do some have “ANY” and a permissive action? Make a list of these rules and analyze them to prepare plans for remediation and compliance. Step 6: Continuity & optimization Now it’s time to simply hone the first five steps and make these processes as regular and streamlined as possible. By following the above steps and building out your own process, you can make day-to-day compliance and auditing much more manageable. Not only will you improve your compliance score, you’ll also be able to maintain a sustainable level of compliance without the usual disruption and hard labor caused by cumbersome and expensive manual processes. To find out more about auditing automation and how you can master compliance, watch my recent webinar and visit our firewall auditing and compliance page. Schedule a demo Related Articles Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 5 Multi-Cloud Environments Cloud Security Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Convergence didn’t fail, compliance did. Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

Financial Institutions: Best Practices for Security & Compliance In the Era of Digital Transformation Download PDF Schedule time with one of our experts Schedule time with one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Continue

Webinars Migrate & modernize: Supercharging your Cisco Nexus refresh with ACI If you still have Cisco Nexus 7000 devices in your environment, surely you have been inundated with end-of-life warnings and next-gen messaging touting the benefits of upgrading to Nexus 9000 with Cisco ACI. We know, modernizing your infrastructure can be a real pain, but with change also comes opportunity! Find out in this session how to leverage your Nexus refresh to increase your efficiency and productivity, and reduce security concerns at the same time. AlgoSec’s Jeremiah Cornelius, along with Cisco’s Cynthia Broderick, will guide you on how to: Migrate your current Nexus flows to ACI using your preferred mode – network or application centric Remove vulnerabilities caused by human error via automation of network change processes. Instantly identify and remediate risk and compliance violations. June 9, 2021 Cynthia Broderick DC Networking, Business Development at Cisco Jeremiah Cornelius Technical Leader for Alliances and Partners at AlgoSec Relevant resources Modernize your network and harness the power of Nexus & Cisco ACI with AlgoSec Watch Video AlgoSec’s integration with Cisco ACI Watch Video Cisco & AlgoSec achieving application-driven security across your hybrid network Keep Reading Choose a better way to manage your network Choose a better way to manage your network Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Continue

Network management & policy change automation Download PDF Schedule time with one of our experts Schedule time with one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Continue

An application-centric approach to firewall rule recertification: Challenges and benefits Download PDF Schedule time with one of our experts Schedule time with one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Continue