Many factors are keeping Chief Information Security Officers, or CISOs, on their toes: the evolving tactics of malicious actors, a major shortage of cyber skills and available experts, and the fallout of The Great Resignation with people leaving their roles en masse, with the chances of workers accidentally taking sensitive company data along with them.
Digitisation has triggered a string of new disruptions. Not only do CISOs need to worry about their own security, but they also need to ensure that all outsourced vendors and third parties affiliated with their business are just as secure. This is yet another challenge that is no easy feat for strung-out C-Level security professionals.
The bottom-line is that cybersecurity is no longer a nice to have. It is essential for every organisation embracing digitisation. A logical approach for organisations to develop a strategy that simplifies cybersecurity. There are accessible security tools and processes that can help CISOs tackle the current threat landscape while remaining compliant. One of these solutions is Privilege Access Management – or PAM – an effective security method CISOs can leverage combined with network segregation to deliver technical security and compliance in a single hit.
In recent years, businesses have scrambled to keep a step ahead of evolving threats and to meet high-stake security regulations. Specific cyber threats regularly feature in the list of the top 5 CISO worries, alongside the cyber skills shortage and rising energy costs – and it does not stop there. Even though over half of global CEOs (62%) believe that cyber threats are an increasing concern for company growth, CISOs need to ensure that fellow members of the executive understand how to effectively deal with them, and that they see the importance and urgency of updating company security processes and tools to keep step with nimble threat actors.
For CISOs, there are plenty of moving parts to manage with little time to waste. PAM solutions can lighten the technical security load. As an entry point to a filtered network, PAM is, by definition, a solution that ultimately controls user access, and since organisations are not only facing the risk of external threats but insider threats too, having the capacity to monitor and control user access is a smart way to safeguard vulnerable networks. PAM is also up to speed with compliance regulations. When using PAM, all sessions are tracked. CISOs can bring a tracked access history to the executive table, supporting their C-Suite to provide evidence of compliance to regulators.
Session and access histories can also be leveraged to improve general cybersecurity hygiene. If a breach or an attack does strike, an access history can show exactly what happened on the network. This script can in fact improve security in the future. It can also be used as evidence to prove that regulatory safeguards were used and adhered to at the time of the breach.
It is difficult to predict how cyber tactics will evolve in the future. What CISOs can be sure of though is that in the current threat landscape, all boardroom members need to be ready to fight new security challenges head on, with CISOs leading the charge. Equipped with effective security processes and solutions such as PAM, CISOs can keep security cyber risks at bay and feel confident that their systems are secured against external and internal threats, while remaining compliant.
