Keeping pace with cyber threats: Strategies for secure business expansion

As companies expand and adopt new technologies like cloud computing, IoT, and AI, their attack surfaces also grow. These entry points are vulnerable to cyberattacks and data breaches, which can have devastating consequences. Gartner's 2022 Security and Risk Management Summit emphasized the need for companies to identify and secure their attack surfaces to prevent malicious attacks.

Hackers see every new asset or entry point as an opportunity to penetrate a system, so IT teams must proactively secure them. This includes securing new printers, laptops, and cloud hosts to prevent unauthorized access.

Recent attacks like Conti's 2022 ransomware attack on the Costa Rican government, which exposed 97% of stolen information, demonstrate the importance of protecting attack surfaces. Growing businesses must be vigilant and adopt modern solutions to avoid cyber threats.

This article will explore different attack surfaces and the solutions to help companies secure them. By identifying potential vulnerabilities and implementing preventative measures, businesses can ensure that emerging cyber-attacks won't become an issue for their thriving company.

Identifying attack surfaces to protect your business and growth

As your company grows and expands its operations, it becomes more vulnerable to cyber attacks through various entry points, known as attack surfaces. With the increasing use of cloud services, IoT, social media, and APIs, it's essential to have a robust risk detection system in place. Every new asset or entry point into the network is a potential target for hackers, making preventive measures crucial to avoid data breaches.

One of the main attack surfaces to watch out for is the introduction of new software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms, adding users to the network, and using APIs. It's not enough to rely solely on firewalls anymore, as many assets now face exposure outside of a company's domain, such as on customer apps, emails, and websites.

In addition to digital assets, physical assets such as computers, hard drives, and mobile devices pose a risk. It's important to ensure that no device is left unattended, as this could provide a potential attack vector for cybercriminals.

To effectively protect your business from cyber threats, it's crucial to identify all possible attack surfaces and take the necessary measures to secure them. By implementing a robust risk detection and prevention system, your business can minimize the risk of data breaches and cyber-attacks, ensuring that your growing company continues to thrive securely.

Risk and reward

Multi-cloud strategies are becoming more prevalent as companies migrate to various public cloud services, such as Amazon Web Services and Azure, to mitigate possible disruptions and reduce the risk of data loss. However, this approach introduces more attack surfaces that need to be secured. Cloud misconfiguration, legacy protocols, and APIs running without proper controls are common gateways for cyberattacks. APIs are often the glue that connects systems in the cloud, providing an easy entry point for hackers. The number of APIs companies use increases the threat of API-related vulnerabilities, costing businesses up to $75 billion annually. Exposed API keys can serve as perfect vectors for malicious attacks.

Flexibility comes with security risks

Many companies offer remote work options to attract more candidates, and this has become even more prevalent since the beginning of the pandemic. Remote workers are becoming the main target of hackers, and cyberattacks have increased by 238% since the pandemic started. Systems not controlled in a single network are more prone to hacking, especially devices such as personal laptops using public internet connections and mobile devices with sensitive data.

Open Source: The benefits and risks of leveraging publicly available code

Rapid-growth companies in the tech and financial sectors leverage open-source options to speed up the coding process. Although considered safe, anyone can access this publicly available asset, and many hackers disrupt software and steal information. For instance, the Log4j case affected millions of companies still grappling with severe vulnerabilities in the logging service.

Attack surface management

Effective attack surface management is essential for any growing business. Attack surface management refers to identifying and securing all entry points or vulnerabilities that hackers may exploit to gain unauthorized access to an organization's systems or data. By identifying these entry points, companies can take proactive measures to secure them and prevent potential cyberattacks.

A hands-on approach to vulnerability management

One of the ways to manage attack surfaces is through ethical hacking. This involves conducting simulated attacks on an organization's systems to identify vulnerabilities and assess the effectiveness of existing security measures. Training staff members or third-party security experts can perform ethical hacking internally. The goal is to identify and fix vulnerabilities before malicious actors can exploit them.

In addition, ethical hacking AI is an emerging white hat tool that constantly identifies threats from weak security systems. AI-powered ethical hacking tools can identify vulnerabilities and provide recommendations for improving security measures, allowing organizations to proactively manage their attack surfaces and prevent potential cyberattacks.

Limiting access to sensitive data and systems

Access control is another critical aspect of attack surface management. As organizations grow, limiting access to sensitive data and operating systems and properly authenticating key individuals becomes increasingly important. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is a simple yet effective way to identify team members and control access. Microsoft reported in 2019 that systems were 99% safer when using MFA.

In addition to strong passwords, authentication can ask a personal question only the right person would know or send a verification code through SMS or email. This also applies to APIs when granting access to app data and reducing vulnerabilities. OAuth and OpenID are advanced standards to authenticate the credentials of third parties with MFA or privileged access management.

Training your team to recognize and respond to threats

Ultimately, protecting systems always comes down to people. As organizations expand, they open the door to more people and, thus, more attack surfaces to protect. Human error remains a significant factor in cyber-attacks. A simple click on a phishing email can deeply hurt a company's assets. In 2022, phishing attempts via email, websites, and mobile devices increased by 61%.

To test workers, a simulator program can send out fake phishing emails to see how workers respond to them. This measures how well-prepared teams are to face these seemingly harmless threats and allows security teams to launch action plans to train staff.

By addressing the human element, companies can educate their employees on best security practices and help them identify and report potential cyber threats.

Effective attack surface management requires constant monitoring and updating to keep pace with evolving cyber threats. By combining ethical hacking, access control, and employee education, organizations can proactively protect their systems and data and minimize the risk of cyber attacks.

Conclusion

Growing companies are continually opening themselves up to new vulnerabilities. Still, with the right measures, they can oversee possible threats and train their team to keep their business operating smoothly without any mishaps. Attack surface management, access control, and the human element are crucial to secure systems and minimizing cyber threats.