The Cybersecurity Checklist: Top Methods and Tools for Protection And Mitigation

The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) is fueling an increase in cyber-attacks, threatening the data infrastructure of businesses and individuals. Approximately 85 percent of cybersecurity professionals attribute the increase in cyber-attacks to bad actors using generative AI.

No sector is safe. From denial-of-service (DoS) to advanced phishing to deep fakes, businesses and organizations must prepare for AI-driven cyber-attacks, and an integrated set of tools and security measures is necessary to protect their data. Most cyber pros are familiar with at least several, but some measures and tools are often overlooked. Below is a checklist to help ensure cybersecurity pros can best review and assess the tools in place to see if a new mix is required.

Security Measures:

These techniques are vital for cyber pros to understand if they wish to proactively protect their organizations from cyber-attacks and mitigate the damage when it inevitably occurs.

Ethical hacking:

Ethical hacking is vital to assessing data risk and should be done periodically. Ethical hacking/penetration testers are likely to become increasingly important. Cybersecurity threats are becoming more sophisticated and widespread with the continued rise of digital technologies and the increasing connectivity of devices and systems.

No sector is untouched by these attackers. IT firms, healthcare organizations, and financial institutes are the prime targets for attackers due to the financial, sensitive data they store and process. To safeguard financial and sensitive data, performing vulnerability and penetration is a must. An ethical hacker’s job is to identify and close the gaps. An ethical hacker might simulate a phishing attack to test employees’ awareness and the effectiveness of the institution’s security protocols. By identifying potential entry points for a bad actor, the ethical hacker enables the organization to strengthen its security posture, thus protecting customer data and other assets.

Security awareness training:

Educating employees and users about best practices for data protection and cybersecurity can help prevent common threats such as phishing attacks, social engineering, and malware infections.

Many studies have shown that companies saw a 40-50% decrease in the number of harmful links clicked by users after implementing security awareness training. Identifying risk users who click phishing links as part of a phishing simulation is crucial. Providing training to these risky users translates to fewer security incidents and breaches.

Many organizations have provided users with training at shorter intervals, like every 15 days, with short training videos of 5 to 15 minutes. This short training schedule interval and timeline have been proven to be effective in stopping breaches.

Regular security audits and assessments:

Regular security audits and assessments help identify vulnerabilities and areas for improvement in an organization’s security posture. These methods include penetration testing, vulnerability scanning, and compliance audits.

Consider an example of an IT/ITES company with sensitive customer data. The company conducts regular security assessments (VA/PT) audits to ensure data security. Multiple simulated cyberattacks are performed to identify security misconfigurations and gaps in hardware and software components. In addition to this, the company also conducts ISO 27001 and SSAE SOC 2 audits to ensure their security measures meet industry standards and regulations. These audits have helped the company avoid potential security breaches by proactively managing their risk and testing and reinforcing their defense mechanisms.

Incident response and disaster recovery planning:

A robust incident response plan and disaster recovery strategy are essential for minimizing the impact of security incidents and data breaches. They include procedures for detecting, responding to, and recovering from security breaches in a timely and effective manner.

Security Tools:

There are a number of tools cyber pros can use to help implement these methods. These include:

Encryption:

Encryption is a fundamental tool for protecting data. It involves encoding data so that only authorized parties can access it. This tool can include encrypting data at rest (stored data) and in transit (data transmitted between systems).

To protect sensitive data, organizations use data encryption at rest to encode PII, SPII, PCI, and other sensitive information when it is stored in the database. This data-at-rest encryption ensures that an unauthorized party cannot read the data from the database until they have the decryption key.

Access control:

Strong access controls ensure that only authorized individuals or systems can access data. Implementing this tool involves employing user authentication mechanisms such as passwords, biometrics, and multi-factor authentication (MFA).

Data masking:

Data masking involves hiding sensitive information within a dataset while maintaining its usability for specific purposes. This tool can help protect sensitive data during testing, analytics, or other processes where full access is not required.

Consider an IT company developing software for a bank. The development team needs realistic data to test the software’s functionality; however, the bank wants to ensure that customer information remains confidential. This requirement necessitates implementing data masking techniques to safeguard the bank’s customers’ PII (personally identifiable information).

Firewalls and network security:

Firewalls monitor and control incoming and outgoing network traffic based on predetermined security rules. They help protect against unauthorized access, data breaches, and other cyber threats.

Imagine a group of marketers working in an organization who want to have access to Facebook and other social media platforms. However, per the organization’s policy, access to social media is restricted. Nonetheless, access is granted to a few employees based on business justification. This requirement is met by writing firewall rules that allow traffic to social media sites for a certain range of IP addresses.

Intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDPS):

IDPS tools monitor network traffic for signs of suspicious activity or known threats. They can then automatically block or mitigate attacks in real time.

The IDPS solution continuously monitors and analyzes both internal and external traffic. This tool can detect malicious activity based on the traffic pattern and sends notifications to the administrator. It can also block the IP address associated with suspicious traffic. Additionally, it will write a rule to prevent such attacks in the future.

The IDPS can also block emails with attachments that contain executable files, which are often used to spread malware. By taking these actions, the IDPS prevents advanced attacks, protects confidential data, and keeps businesses up and running.

Data loss prevention (DLP):

DLP tools help organizations prevent the unauthorized transmission of sensitive data outside the corporate network. They can monitor and control data transfers, enforce encryption policies, and prevent data leaks.

The DLP tool plays a significant role in safeguarding sensitive information within an organization. A successful DLP implementation can detect and stop data breaches. In an organization, this tool is configured to detect any personally identifiable, confidential, and sensitive information from being sent without proper authorization. When someone inadvertently transfers such PII, confidential, or sensitive information over email or a public platform, the DLP tool blocks this transmission and alerts the IT team and sender with a notification about the detection of unauthorized data transmission.

Endpoint security:

Endpoint security solutions protect individual devices such as computers, laptops, and mobile devices from malware, ransomware, and other cyber threats, including antivirus software, endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions, and mobile device management (MDM) platforms.

An employee opens a legitimate email containing a malicious attachment. Upon clicking the attachment, malware infects the device, encrypting all company files. That’s where endpoint security solutions such as MDM, EDR, and web proxy come into the picture to protect organizations from unwanted attacks.

Conclusion

Cyber-attacks are harmful to the organization and the individual, exposing sensitive information, causing reputation loss, loss of revenue, and could even threaten our nation and government. That is why it is essential for leaders to understand and consider the right mix of measures and tools to prevent and mitigate the damage of an attack. Leaders must stay informed, use AI cautiously, and always ensure their employees are up to speed because the next major cyber breach could be their own organization.

About the Author

Vishwas Pitre is the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) & Data Privacy Officer (DPO) at Zensar Technologies. With a demonstrated history of working in the information technology and services industry, Vishwas has over 25 years of experience working with a global clientele to establish security frameworks, technology solutions, and process definitions and implementations. He is the recipient of the 2024 InfoSec Maestros Award for Smart CISO, amongst others. Vishwas can be reached online at LinkedIn and at our company website https://www.zensar.com/