Introduction to Enterprise Security
The attack surface of any enterprise has expanded significantly in recent years. Traditionally, organizations would be responsible for securing data stored in on-premise servers and leverage state-of-the-art security solutions to protect against cyber-attacks. These threats were usually motivated by financial or political gains. Today, businesses connect technologies to reach a wider user base, collaborate with vendors, and allow for work across a distributed workforce across geographically disparate locations—your risk is higher than ever before.
The growing attack surface requires defense systems that go beyond traditional cybersecurity measures. Let’s take a look at enterprise security.
Enterprise Security includes the strategies, techniques, and process of securing information and IT assets against unauthorized access and risks that may infringe the confidentiality, integrity or availability of these systems. Building on the traditional cybersecurity premise of protecting digital assets at the local front, enterprise security extends to the security of data in transit across the connected network, servers, and end-users.
It encompasses the technology, people, and processes involved in maintaining a secure environment for digital assets. Because it encompasses the enterprise, this security has additional focus on the legal and cultural requirements of securing data assets that belong to an organization’s user base.
The following trends are forcing organizations to enhance their cybersecurity measures across all levels of the enterprise:
The proliferation of cloud computing has enabled organizations of all sizes to take advantage of high-end and scalable hardware resources at an OpEx basis. As a result, they have been able to expand their business across global markets—but that comes with a significant caveat: a vast volume of data is not accessible to companies, yet they are responsible for securing their data assets.
The trouble with cloud-stored data is significant. The data is not locally hosted. Enterprises do not control the cloud computing resources that store it. With limited visibility and control into cloud hardware, you must rely on cloud vendors for your first line of defense.
The influx of connected devices, the Internet of Things, allows businesses to extend their service offerings and achieve operational excellence. IoT has enabled organizations to automate manual processes, reduce human error, and pursue new business models.
The growing ecosystem of IoT networks also brings key challenges:
More data means more insights. Organizations rely on insightful information to deliver the right services to the right customer. Computing resources and data intelligence solutions are widely available and affordable. End-users are willing to share some personal information in exchange for a useful service. This brings tremendous opportunities for enterprises to produce data-driven products and business strategies that guarantee high returns on investments.
At the same time, these companies are responsible for securing user information that must be leveraged only for the allowed purposes and within ethical bounds of the modern digital world.
Governments around the world have recognized the need for stringent privacy regulations in response to growing cyber-security risks to end-users. In 2013, all 3 billion Yahoo user accounts were hacked, eventually resulting in a data breach settlement of $117.5 million. More importantly, the company has since lost billions of dollars in market cap as internet users have largely adopted alternatives. The lost brand reputation has been irrecoverable and was caused due to a large-scale data leak that took place long before it was discovered and made public.
More recently, governments have enforced compliance measures that force businesses to reshape and enhance their enterprise security capabilities, along with heavy fines for compliance failure. GDPR in the EU is a prime example.
Enterprise security therefore involves security measures across all aspects of the organization. It ranges from backend cloud networks to IoT endpoints at the network edge. It is driven by the proliferation of data-intensive business operations and services, and heavily mandated by stringent global regulations. Internet users are increasingly aware and distant from organizations failing to guarantee security of their personal information.
The threats come from both within the enterprise, such as human error or disgruntled employees, as well as external cyber-attackers. The following best practices can help your organizations improve security capabilities across all these fronts:
For more details on securing the modern enterprise, browse our BMC Security & Compliance Blog or check out these articles: