Businesses must prioritize Cybersecurity to effectively tackle threats

With the advent of 2022 we have witnessed cyber security challenges coming in many forms, such as ransomware, phishing attacks, malware attacks, and more. The criminal activity has increased with the increase of remote working. It is usually easier to trick an employee, to hand over sensitive data or run a piece of malware on a company computer than it is to accomplish these goals through other means. The pandemic pushed enterprises to think beyond business continuity and look at building resilience. The companies through their security solutions are strengthening detection so that enterprises can keep up with the changing global threat landscape and reduce risk by using security analytics and automation to prioritize investigations and accelerate incident detection and response.

To know more about the impact of cyber attacks and solutions to protect against cybercrime let’s look into the views from the security leaders. 

Ripu Bajwa, Director and General Manager, Data Protection Solutions, Dell Technologies, India

Security never slows down anyone, instead accelerates innovation

Impact of cyber-attacks on the critical infrastructure of companies

Cyber-attacks have kept companies fearing the loss of their mission-critical data. The onus to secure against vulnerabilities and act upon IT decision-maker insights lies with the organization’s senior leadership. Businesses across all industries are modernizing and transforming how they operate and deliver differentiated products and services. Undoubtedly, the industry has moved to a stage where it is cognizant of the current and emerging security concerns. The key is to identify the potential gaps within an organization and invest in the infrastructure to protect and prevent from any attacks. The way forward is in increasing investments in modern infrastructure solutions and adopting an as-a-Service model to keep up with digital transformation goals. At Dell Technologies, we believe, security never slows you down and instead accelerates innovation, allowing you to think in new, strategic ways. Security is no longer a set of projects but a continuous life cycle that requires constant review and analysis.

Managing critical events and emergency incidents

Critical event management software can help reduce the chaos of disaster response without overloading disaster recovery teams with data or complicating communications. This software is rapidly emerging as an essential disaster response and recovery tool. Our VxRail solution helps businesses with security incident and event management. It includes vRealize Log Insight to centralize log management for the system. For organizations with an existing centralized log management facility, such as Splunk or a Security Incident and Event Management System (SIEM), VxRail can easily integrate using the industry-standard Syslog interface. SecureWorks provides log management services for VxRail and virtually any critical information asset or security technology, for customers who don’t want to manage security events themselves. SecureWorks collects and monitors the security information you need to keep your business secure. More importantly, SecureWorks’ deeply skilled security experts working from their integrated Counter Threat Operation Centers investigate and respond immediately to any malicious activity 24/7.

The solutions to protect the infrastructure

Dell Technologies provides a modern portfolio of technology designed to meet the unique needs of organizations with safe and secure infrastructure solutions. Technology infrastructure solutions for safety and security resources include:

• The Dell EMC PowerProtect Data Manager– software-defined data protection, automation, deduplication, self-service, and IT governance for physical, virtual, and cloud environments.

• Dell EMC PowerProtect Cyber Recovery Solution - protects and isolates an organization’s critical data from ransomware and other sophisticated cyber threats. It identifies suspicious activity with machine learning to recover data and resume normal operations with confidence.

• Dell EMC Data Protection Suite - a full-featured software solution that supports workloads being protected across multiple environments from core to edge to cloud.

Sonit Jain, CEO, GajShield Infotech

Gajshield’s security products and services help to proactive endpoint data protection

Ensuring endpoint data security for remote devices

An endpoint refers to all the devices connected to a data network. From an organisation’s point of view, endpoints are all the devices that, at any given point of time, use the organisational resources from its network and its virtual databases. During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the concept of employees working from home has been implemented in nearly every organisation. But, while the work operations continue unabated, remote users and their devices are no longer on the organisational premises to receive data protection from its cybersecurity infrastructure. So the need for providing endpoint security gets amplified in the existing scenario. There are several organisations that work in the BYOD (bring your own device) way for their employees to carry out company operations on their personal devices. Apart from that, cyber threats may be moving away from network threats and towards being endpoint-related issues. Accordingly, an employee’s device is treated as an endpoint.

Using simple measures

Basic cybersecurity measures, such as using advanced multi-factor authentication systems, anti-virus software to protect a collection of devices instead of just one device, the deletion of unnecessary cache and cookies, as well as user and employee data from time to time to secure confidential data and prevent unnecessary clutter.

The software and hardware in place to ensure cyber-protection must be authentic certified for use and updated regularly. Simple measures and using data security tools and systems that are designed for remotely connected devices can come in handy to ensure endpoint data security for users. Gajshield’s data security products and services can help with proactive endpoint data protection for your devices.

Rajesh Maurya, Regional Vice President, India & SAARC, Fortinet

Fortinet’s solution integrates OT security solutions with best-of-breed threat protection

Impact of cyber-attacks on the critical infrastructure of companies

For countless health and safety reasons, it’s vital to keep critical infrastructure running, yet according to the Fortinet 2021 State of Operational Technology and Cybersecurity survey, 9 out of 10 OT organizations experienced at least one intrusion in the past year. The problem is that because IT and OT networks are increasingly interconnected, almost any access point could be a target to gain entry to the corporate infrastructure. It’s clear that attacks on OT infrastructure are not going to slow down. Within OT organizations, 58% reported phishing attacks, up from 43% the previous year. There also was an increase in insider breaches at 42%, which is up from 18% last year.

Managing critical events and emergency incidents

To prevent the lateral spread of an incident across the network, organizations should already have intent-based segmentation and zero-trust protocols in place. Intent-based segmentation logically separates systems, devices, and data based on business requirements, and are critical in preventing a system-wide incident. 

Once malware or other elements of a breach have been detected, care needs to be taken to ensure that they are entirely removed from the network. Tools that modify shared libraries or files that modify applications or code, or that exploit existing software tools – a technique known as living off the land – can make it especially challenging to identify and remove all elements of an attack. As a result, quick mitigations will need to take place to ensure that the attacker is not able to compromise the system again. This is accomplished by taking the information gleaned from prior steps and immediately addresses issues that led to the breach, such as reconfiguring a device, installing a missing patch, or resetting compromised credentials.

Finally, after an incident has been contained and eradicated, recovery needs to take place using good backups. Recovery teams should be able to bring essential systems back online as soon as possible. IT teams should also be aware that it can be difficult to totally eliminate embedded threats, especially those designed to evade detection, so it is always a good idea to increase security monitoring for several weeks after a breach recovery to ensure the threat is completely removed.

The solutions to protect the infrastructure

Fortinet’s solution integrates OT security solutions with best-of-breed threat protection for corporate IT environments that extend from the data center, to the cloud, to the network perimeter. It also provides visibility, control, and automated at speed analytics detection within the OT environment while provisioning built-in support for industry standards. Additionally, it minimizes complexity and reduces the operating expense (OpEx) of OT security management, when compared to point security solutions in siloed IT and OT environments. By designing security into complex infrastructure via the Fortinet Security Fabric, organizations have an efficient, non-disruptive way to ensure that the OT environment is protected and compliant.

John Fokker, Head of Cyber Investigations and Principal Engineer, Trellix

Trellix actively aligned with the global network of public and private sector partners

 Impact of cyber-attacks on the critical infrastructure of companies

Critical infrastructure is frequently targeted by bad actors due to its vast reach, interconnection, and use of embedded systems, not to mention the fact that much of it relies on a mix of legacy and more modern equipment. Being prepared for evolving threats that exist is one of the most difficult tasks that companies and their critical infrastructure face. Most attacks fall into one of three categories: espionage, extortion, or sabotage. Today, organizations are looking for state of the art systems to build resiliency and security.

Managing critical events and emergency incidents

By providing threat-centric and business context, automating analytics and remediation, and minimizing data for machine-human teaming, XDR eliminates time-consuming detection and investigation processes, allowing businesses to respond to threats faster. It gives businesses, infrastructure providers, and other enterprises greater confidence in the security and resilience of their environments, even when confronted with the most sophisticated threat actors and this can boost the priorities of organizations against cyberattacks.

The solutions to protect the infrastructure

Cybersecurity must be a business priority in order to effectively combat threats, which can occur at any time and without notice. The XDR ecosystem can help protect against threats that can result in huge losses. Trellix is also coordinating with government and industry partners to help provide greater visibility into the evolving threat landscape. As a member of the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC) convened by the U.S. Cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Trellix is actively aligned with this global network of public and private sector partners focused on rapid response efforts to protect critical infrastructure.

As people continue to work from home, the risk of sensitive personal and corporate data being compromised has multiplied. Remote work has also provided criminals with access to remote systems, allowing them to implement a variety of malicious threats that could affect not only users working from home, but also the organizations for which they work. These threats include the distribution of spam and malware, as well as the use of risky methods to disguise malicious activity and compile their tools on the machine.

Our XDR platform generates and prioritizes comprehensive threat insights from outside and inside the company to adaptively strengthen detection so that enterprises can keep up with the changing global threat landscape and reduce risk by using security analytics and automation to prioritize investigations and accelerate incident detection and response.

Sanjai Gangadharan, Area Vice President -South ASEAN, A10 Networks

Employing a Zero Trust security strategy is now more critical than ever

Impact of cyber-attacks on the critical infrastructure of companies

The growing threat landscape requires modern defenses to mitigate infiltration from malware, ransomware and other emerging threats. As this new threat environment spans both the digital and physical worlds, employing a Zero Trust security strategy is now more critical than ever. At A10 Networks we have made enhancements to our security and infrastructure solutions to strengthen Zero Trust architectures for digital resiliency.

• Infiltration visibility and protection

• Automated DDoS protection

• Granular operational micro-segmentation

• Advanced user authorization and verification

• Real-time observability and central management

A10’s solutions, as part of a strong Zero Trust architecture, help security teams eliminate unnecessary risk and become more efficient. Default configurations, encrypted traffic, excessive privileges, lack of micro-segmentation and emerging attack vectors lead to exploitation by threat actors and need to be addressed. These A10 solutions are being adopted by our customers in service provider and enterprise markets.

Managing critical events and emergency incidents

Chief security officers (and CIOs, CISOs) are facing rapidly growing cybersecurity challenges. Not only do they have all the traditional responsibilities to take care of such as day-to-day operations safeguarding the corporation’s physical assets, and crisis management, but now all of that has to be done under a cyber security threat environment that’s orders of magnitude more dangerous than ever before. Ransomware has become one of the greatest network security threats organizations have to deal with because it has become that much more complicated. It’s distributed at a high speed via the internet and private networks and uses military-grade encryption. Worse still, today’s threat actors demand multi-million-dollar ransoms, and ransomware is expected to cost businesses around $20 billion this year and more than $265 billion by 2031.

But ransomware is only one of the many threat’s organizations have to deal with. Globally, DDoS attacks have also increased as a result of pandemic-inspired cybercrime. This has proven to be a wake-up call to organizations of all types – schools, higher education, communication service providers, and enterprise. As populations continue to work, play and learn in hybrid environments, secure and reliable connectivity is essential not only for economic survival, but required for access to health services, education and other fundamental needs of society.

The solutions to protect the infrastructure

A10 Networks has seen a dramatic increase in customer needs as they navigate this rapidly changing landscape. In 2021, our aim was to secure our customers’ infrastructures against emerging security threats; hence we introduced new customer-oriented product solutions. A10 Networks continues to work with its customers to help them evaluate the efficacy of their security posture, to secure their multi-cloud and 5G networks and ensure that their business-critical applications are secured and available.

Our DDoS protection solutions protect against the largest DDoS attacks, particularly as new targets are being attacked, like healthcare and government entities in the age of COVID-19, and as attacks are becoming more sophisticated. DDoS protection can help organizations avoid business downtime, lost revenue, and damaged reputation, while also ensuring future protection.

Praveen Patil Kulkarni, Country Manager - Security Risk & Governance, Micro Focus

In the digital world technology demands to continue to grow

 Impact of cyber-attacks on the critical infrastructure of companies

In today’s digital-first world, a single click on a harmless link in the email box can lead to severe repercussions, loss of revenue, reputation, and trust and have aftereffects on the economy. According to a Forrester report, Australia, India, and Japan are the most cyber-attacked nations in Asia overtaking North America and Europe. The increase in IoT use cases, reliance on networked devices, and distributed computation systems have led to a rise in critical infrastructure attacks. With digital acceleration, threats are also evolving, becoming more intelligent on various ways to attack the infrastructure. Hence, proactive mitigation and constant vigilance of any potential data threats is critical to secure the organization’s assets and data. To defend businesses from such attacks, IT teams need to implement AI techniques such as insider threat analyzing for subtle attacks in progress. Security AI that can analyse big data, detect slight behavioral changes, and trace the device/s being infiltrated is critical for cyber resilience.

Managing critical events and emergency incidents

As organizations continue to expand their environment the need for zero-trust architecture increases. The high layer of protection transforms identity verification into a model where no user accessing data is trusted. It ensures that the right level of access is provided to the identity without posing any threat to the data and applications and limits the lateral movement of users and processes across zones throughout the network. NetIQ Identity Governance by Micro Focus offers efficient integration of processes that keep access permission current to secure the environment. It automates the identity and permission lifecycle, and administration which enables security teams to know which users have the permission to access the protected information and remediate access risks across the environment. NetIQ Privileged Account Manager takes security to the next level by providing a variety of controls targeted specifically at securing access to the systems along with providing regular audits by monitoring privileged user activity.

On the Increase of cyberattacks

Work from anywhere is here to stay. According to Fitch Ratings, cyberattacks on businesses and government organizations have increased due to global instability along with the risk of spill over cyberattacks against non-primary targets becoming much more widespread. Hence, enterprises should be hawkeyed, aware of all activities and especially from that of third parties. SoCs need to focus on taking actions beyond recovering post attacks like harnessing technology to mitigate IT risks, implementing DevSecOps, or building mission-critical applications with scale-out architecture. A mature security team already has technology in place to anticipate and predict the next potential threat and proactively alleviate the same. As we move forward in the digital world, technology demands will continue growing, requiring businesses to equip themselves with tools for threat monitoring, supply chain mapping, infrastructure protection, real-time risk intelligence, and business continuity management.

Prashant Bhatkal, Security Software Sales Leader, IBM Technology Sales, India/South Asia

IBM QRadar XDR Suite - A unique comprehensive extended detection and response (XDR) solution

Impact of cyber-attacks on the critical infrastructure of companies

As per the 2022 IBM Security X-Force Threat Intelligence Index, Asia Pacific is now the most targeted region for cyberattacks – representing 26% of attacks analysed in 2021. India was among the top three most attacked countries in the region, with Japan and Australia being the others. Ransomware was the dominant attack type against organizations in India, with the Sodinokibi and BitLocker ransomware groups accounting for most of these attacks. A common pathway for many of the attacks on Indian organizations was phishing attacks. This trend signals a growing need for security investments amongst Asian organizations including in India, particularly those in financial services and manufacturing, which together at nearly 60%, were the most-targeted industries in the region.

As organizations in Asia Pacific increasingly become targets of more & more sophisticated cyberattacks, speed is everything when it comes to response – from detecting and stopping potential attacks, limiting window of access to your environment, stemming reputational harm, as well as getting critical technology back online. Rehearsing for various types of potential security incidents is the best way to ensure that everyone within the business knows their roles and what to do in each situation. With the IBM Security Command Center, we can recreate the environment and pressure in a very realistic way, to put those skills to the test. IBM Security Operations Centers offer an open and detect slight behavioral changes, and trace the device/s being infiltrated is critical for cyber resilience.

Managing critical events and emergency incidents

• Pull the “kill switch” on trust

• Harden your cloud environments and include a zero-trust approach to your security strategy

• Limit access to sensitive data and protect highly privileged accounts

• Extend detection and response

• Adopt open source

• Scrutinize your supply chain

• Develop a response plan for ransomware

• PATCH. Refine and mature your vulnerability management system

• Use Threat Intelligence to Understand the Threats to Your Organization

• Enforce Multifactor Authentication (MFA)

The solutions to protect the infrastructure

IBM Security offers one of the most advanced and integrated portfolios of enterprise security products and services. The portfolio, supported by world-renowned IBM X-Force research, enables organizations to effectively manage risk and defend against emerging threats. Our innovative, AI-driven security capabilities are used by thousands of clients around the world, spanning SIEM, SOAR, data security, identity and access management, mobile security, fraud prevention and more. These industry-leading solutions also simplify how organizations deploy zero-trust architecture with the core principles of least privilege access; never trust, always verify; and assume breach.

IBM’s revolutionary Cloud Pak for Security is an open security platform that brings together leading capabilities from IBM and other vendors to connect security data, tools and teams across hybrid cloud environments. The recently launched IBM QRadar XDR Suite is a unique comprehensive extended detection and response (XDR) solution that provides comprehensive visibility across security tools and data sources, whether in the cloud or on-premises, equipping security teams with the insights they need to act quickly. 

Saravanan  Shanmugam, AVP - Managed Services, Bahwan CyberTek

Business continuity is about long-term resilience

 Impact of cyber-attacks on the critical infrastructure of companies

Digital transformation is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it obliterates physical barriers increasing connectivity, agility, and efficiency. On the other, it exposes vulnerabilities. Last year, when the pandemic shifted business landscapes, threat actors found novel ways to compromise data security. A report from IBM found a 33% increase in the number of incidents caused by vulnerability exploitations from 2020 to 2021. In another report, WEF identified cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure as a cause for concern. Cyber attacks on Critical Infrastructure in an interconnected world will be more than an inconvenience or financial loss. The consequences of a cyber-attack on a nuclear power plant, hospital, power grid, or public transportation will pose a serious physical threat to humans. It’s time to acknowledge the risks and take necessary precautions.

To ensure protection

There are two ways to do this. One, cyber security has to become a business priority. It can no longer be pertinent only in post-attack situations. For this, enterprises have to invest in top-notch capable resources thinking and staying ahead of the threat actors. Second, build awareness across the organization about the impact of malware, ransomware, phishing, or cyber-attack-related activities. Helping employees identify these cyber threats will build business immunity and save business interests.

Additionally, intelligent automation is another way to avoid disruptions. Advanced emerging technologies can be leveraged to create automated business processes that adapt to disruptions with a human expert in the loop.

Managing critical events and emergency incidents

One of the most important lessons learned during the pandemic was the need to adapt. We witnessed enterprises, including ours, readily migrating to platforms like Office365 for better collaboration. We enabled VPN access to facilitate secure remote working, and upgraded firewalls to manage additional users. The pandemic pushed enterprises to think beyond business continuity and look at building resilience. Business continuity can no longer be about developing makeshift solutions but about long-term resilience.

The solutions to protect the infrastructure

In BCT, we have deployed a cloud-based AI-powered threat detection solution to ensure our data, applications and infrastructure are protected from malware threats. Additionally, we take great care to orient and sensitize our associates about early detection of threats and reporting them to the cyber security teams.

On the Increase of cyberattacks

The attack surface has increased for threat actors. Previously it used to be restricted to enterprise spaces, which were heavily guarded. Today, remote working has expanded the organization’s perimeter drastically. Employees are using assets at their homes, shared office spaces, cafes, and working on multiple devices, exposing their data to several risks.

Kap Prabhakaran, VP - Engineering, Honeywell Connected Enterprise

Timely monitoring and investing in reliable technology solutions is a first step towards avoiding intrusions

Impact of cyber-attacks on the critical infrastructure of companies

The rapid digital adoption driven by the pandemic has seemed to have led to a significant increase in cyber threats. Enterprises in India are adopting zero-trust architecture as critical security frameworks. With the evolution of external threats, in addition to simplified security mechanisms, businesses need agile and robust security postures. Indian businesses seem to be investing heavily in cybersecurity. According to the Data Security Council of India, this has led to the growth of the Indian cybersecurity services market from USD 4.3 Bn in 2019 to USD 8.46 Bn in 2021.

To ensure protection

With the majority of the workforce returning to the workplace, it is important for businesses to rethink their cybersecurity strategy. The hybrid work environment demands cloud based secure access. A secure cloud setup can enable businesses to become more agile. As enterprises focus on assessing their security posture for identifying potential threats, the critical infrastructure of organizations can be made more secure through continuous asset monitoring and alerting.

Managing critical events and emergency incidents 

Companies seem to be now more focused on creating controlled measurable environments and adopting technologies designed to help in understanding Operational Technology (OT) assets at play. Timely monitoring and investing in reliable technology solutions is a good first step towards avoiding intrusions that could lead to critical incidents. A second step is then assessing damage and making a plan of action. It is equally important to keep employees informed about challenges through transparent communication.

The solutions to protect the infrastructure

Aimed to strengthen cybersecurity across industrial environments, Honeywell offers a robust portfolio of services under the Honeywell Forge enterprise performance management solution. Honeywell Forge Cybersecurity Suite is designed to help organizations to simplify, scale and strengthen OT cybersecurity at a single site or across an enterprise. The offering features asset discovery, continuous risk monitoring and scoring of cybersecurity risks to help facilitate faster response times to cyber threats and operational issues in the OT environment.

On the Increase of cyberattacks

Finance was the top industry facing challenges related to cybersecurity last year. Given the complex nature of modern enterprises, it becomes very difficult for companies to keep track of data without a proper tool to identify potential threats. To enhance business resilience, organizations worldwide are increasing the adoption of technology which makes the process of monitoring and mitigating threats seamless. Increasingly, malware is entering into production facilities in an OT environment through the network and through removable media and devices. The “2021 Honeywell Industrial Cybersecurity USB Threat Report” stated that 79% of threats detected from USB devices had the potential to cause disruptions in OT, including loss of view and loss of control. It’s important for organizations to evaluate these risks to their OT operations and fortify their layers of security that protect against possible intrusions into their network and from USB devices and ports.

Prakash Bell, Head - Security Engineering (India & SAARC), Checkpoint Software Technologies

Check Point Software provides the most comprehensive SCADA and ICS security solutions

Impact of cyber-attacks on the critical infrastructure of companies

Since January 2022, in India, the education/research sector continued to remain the most impacted sector with an average of 4057 attacks per organization registering an increase of 77% from pre-COVID days i.e., January 2020. With the sudden introduction of remote working models being deployed across organizations, the need for cybersecurity is imminent and has widened. It is important that the organization focuses on its cyber security posture. At Check Point, we recommend our customers re-evaluate their Cybersecurity posture & strategy while evaluating and selecting tools that leverage a unified architecture across their digital landscape. A unified Cybersecurity architecture providing a minimum of Gen V security, incorporating prevention as the leading strategy and not just detection, would help secure their infrastructure for today’s threats.  

To ensure protection

Modern organizations need to recalibrate their cyber security approach around three main elements i.e., securing their corporate networks and data centers, securing cloud environments, and lastly, securing employee devices– wherever they are. Achieving complete protection across the expanded attack surface requires security solutions that deliver complete security against Gen V, zero-day attacks, solutions that are easy to deploy and manage, and eliminate the patchwork of the best-of-breed solution, and high TCO with integration and interoperability. Besides the tools, it is also important to have the right governance of security controls and user education, as part of the overall approach, with the approach of security-based around the prevention first approach, gold standard management, and consolidated solutions.

Managing critical events and emergency incidents

Today’s attacks have become very sophisticated, happening at multiple points of the digital infrastructure almost simultaneously and at scale. A single-pane-of-glass view into the infrastructure is a definitive need today, such as what CheckPoint offers. With the right cybersecurity solutions in place, ongoing monitoring for threats cannot be undervalued. Organizations should develop adequate capabilities to monitor, understand, and act on potential threats. For businesses that cannot invest in their own Security Operations Centers (SOCs), validated tech partners (MSSPs) may be leveraged. Also, user organizations can tap into ‘Incident Response Teams’ from OEMs to assist in case of emergencies during attacks. Last but not least, continuous security monitoring, assessments coupled with a clear runbook on incident-handling, are a must.

The solutions to protect the infrastructure

With the industry’s highest catch rate of known and unknown malware, the fastest threat emulation, and the ‘Gold Standard’ of management systems, Check Point Software provides the most comprehensive SCADA and ICS security solutions for organizations with critical infrastructure. From a product perspective, Check Point Software has categorized over 80 products and technologies into three primary categories: Check Point Harmony, CloudGuard, and Quantum which are controlled by Check Point Infinity-Vision, the industry's leading unified security management solution.

Pankaj Kitchlu, Systems Engineering Director, India & SAARC, Juniper Networks

Enterprises must maintain a continuous planning cycle

 Impact of cyber-attacks on the critical infrastructure of companies

In the present day and age rapid digitization has led to rising digital threats. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) recently tracked and reported more than 11.5 lakh incidents of cyberattacks in India. Report says that ransomware attacks have increased by 120% in India. Power companies, oil and gas majors, telecom vendors, restaurant chains and even diagnostic labs have been victims of cyberattacks.

Although advanced technologies are being used for defensive purposes through security automation to counter cybersecurity risks, cybercriminals use AI/ML for sophisticated automation to launch effective malware and phishing campaigns, providing them scale, speed, and repeatability. Organizations should adopt solutions like advanced threat protection, cloud workload protection and endpoint detection and response for ensuring a threat-proof IT infrastructure. Moreover, security operations should be automated by leveraging tools like SIEM and SOAR, helping to get insights on threats and adversaries.

Managing critical events and emergency incidents

Prepare for the worst-case scenario first, and then have a plan in place to manage future events or incidents. Enterprises should also maintain a continuous planning cycle that is in sync with current challenges and agile enough to capture real-time candidates for attacks.

As the world transitions from a physical asset economy to a digital & application-based economy, investments in and around security must increase proportionately. Prior generations of enterprises had unique homegrown platforms and critical assets that were operated in a closed environment, making any cyberattacks difficult to sustain the scale and return on investment.

With organizations moving to more open platforms and multiple clouds, this shift can make them easier targets for cyberattacks. Applications are not the only targets. Every network connection in a LAN – Wired or Wireless Campus, WAN – National or International, and Data Centre – Private or Public becomes a point of interest.

Thus, it is critical to understand the advantages of implementing a Connected Security approach that will enable and secure organizations' digital transformation journeys.

The solutions to protect the infrastructure

Juniper Connected Security protects users, applications, and infrastructure by extending security to every point of connection across the network, from client to cloud. Everything, from how users access data and applications to how network connections are established, must be secure. Because Juniper Networks security solutions are open and extensible, our partnerships with network and security vendors extend the Juniper Connected Security vision by offering customers a choice of products to deploy an industry leading solution.

Junos Space Security Director is at the heart of Juniper Connected Security, providing centralized policy and management. Security Director is a management application that allows you to quickly create, maintain, and apply accurate and consistent network security policies. It also manages the firewalls.

Sandip Kumar Panda, Co-Founder and CEO, InstaSafe

Safeguarding the critical infrastructure became a concern of utmost importance

Impact of cyber-attacks on the critical infrastructure of companies

In the recent past, Cyber-physical attacks have prevailed on the critical infrastructure systems as cyber attackers have been causing massive outages which can be very much fatal and irreversible. Unfortunately, no one is immune as all business can be targeted and can be easily attacked. As per Gartner estimates, Attackers would have been able to weaponries critical infrastructure cyber-physical systems (CPS) to successfully harm or kill humans by 2025. All businesses in almost all the countries rely on critical infrastructure on their day-to-day operations. Not only these sectors are critical for the facilitation of modern societies, but are also interdependent, due to which any attack on these can directly impact the lives of others. Therefore, safeguarding the critical infrastructure has become a concern of utmost importance for each country and business.

Managing critical events and emergency incidents

There is no single simple or one solution for all incidents or critical events, therefore it is important for organisations to identify the kind of the incident and act accordingly. Depending on the intensity, the organisation needs to make a call for all the vitals that need immediate prioritised recovery. Alternate resources and special teams are hidden assets for organisations that work as backup. Special event solutions and efficient executions are ways to safeguard the fundamental resources. To keep your organisations safe and away from cyber attacks, it is suggested to use the right set of security tools. In the worst case scenarios, calling for external experts is advisable. The inhouse or internal incident management should be equipped with all the communication, experience and updated for immediate results. For risk control, companies at cyber risks should always keep cyber insurance ready.

The solutions to protect the infrastructure

Instasafe offers secure remote access for modern hybrid workforce based on Zero Trust principle. Traditional remote access solutions such as VPNs are not made for the modern workforce. With more and more employees working from outside of the office location, and at the same time applications are moving from corporate on-premise data centres to cloud servers, the attack surface has increased significantly which creates an imminent need for more secured remote access solutions. 

One of the fundamental reasons why Cyber Attacks are so successful and damaging, it's because of excessive Network access. Users have way more network access than they need or ever should. This means that once an attacker compromises one machine inside the network, it’s way more easy for them to spread and cause damage. As a result IT & Security teams cannot trust their own networks. The Irony here is, due to that excessive trust between machines, we cannot trust our own networks. InstaSafe's mission is to take away that excessive trust between machines, so that we all can trust our networks again. Our Zero Trust Network access based on the software defined perimeter framework, offers flexible and unmatched options for businesses.

On the increase of cyber attacks

Hackers are taking advantage of the global destabilization by targeting essential industries and common vulnerabilities from the shift to remote working. As organizations offer more virtual, remote access through the use of client portals, application-specific and web-application attacks saw a rise up to 90 percent of all cyberattacks. Manufacturing, healthcare and finance industries all saw an increase in attacks globally. These top three sectors account for a combined total of 62 percent of all attacks.

Akshat Jain, CTO & Co-founder, Cyware

Cyware’s solutions leverage the power of security orchestration and automation

Impact of cyber-attacks on the critical infrastructure of companies

The proliferation of disruptive cyberattacks on the critical infrastructure of high-risk organizations in the financial services, energy, telecom, healthcare, and other key industries have put cybersecurity concerns front and center for all stakeholders. Whether it be ransomware hacks, supply chain attacks, or social engineering threats, cybercriminals are constantly on the lookout for new ways to bypass existing defenses and steal data, defraud victims, disrupt operations, and cause reputational damage. The mass movement toward digital platforms for key business activities during the pandemic has further resulted in the heavy dependence on digital platforms and systems with inadequate security measures in place.

Managing critical events and emergency incidents

The response to critical cyber events and emergency incidents must be swift and precise to achieve the desired outcomes. The success of a crisis response depends on the people, process, and technologies involved in it. There needs to be close collaboration and information sharing between the primary responders and all the other stakeholders within or outside the organization. Coming to the process front, it becomes imperative to remove bottlenecks and inefficiencies in existing processes so as to avoid losing valuable time during a crisis response. Lastly, technology can become a great enabler if combined in the right way with human expertise to take decisive actions at a rapid pace.

The solutions to protect the infrastructure

Security teams are struggling to cope with the growing number of threat alerts and incidents affecting their infrastructure. The longer it takes to detect and mitigate a threat, the more room it leaves for attackers to stealthily manoeuver inside targeted networks to achieve their malicious objectives. Thus, it has become crucial for organizations to strengthen their cybersecurity capabilities to prevent such incidents. Cyware is leading the industry in providing cyber fusion center solutions that help integrate and organize the diverse security functions under a single, connected operational unit. Cyware’s solutions leverage the power of security orchestration and automation (SOAR) to help security teams create and execute end-to-end automated workflows for a variety of security use cases. Moreover, our solutions bring threat intelligence analysis and sharing into the mix, thereby helping organizations take a proactive, threat-centric approach to deal with malware, vulnerabilities, threat actors, attack campaigns, breaches, and a variety of other threats. Cyware also provides solutions to improve the situational awareness of all members within an organization, as well as its partners, vendors, and others, through information sharing and collaboration across their ecosystem.

Huzefa Motiwala, Director- Systems Engineering for India & SAARC, Palo Alto Networks
 

Palo Alto Networks’ Panorama offers easy-to-implement, centralized management features

Impact of cyber-attacks on the critical infrastructure of companies

The critical infrastructure of enterprises is where you’ll find the most valuable and confidential data. It shouldn't come as a surprise that increased digital transformation on both organisation and attacker fronts have made these points even more vulnerable. We are now working in a mixed reality with multiple devices, clouds, and sub-networks operating within the company network. Unless the SOC takes the appropriate steps to secure this, breaches could become even more frequent and detrimental. Organisations must look at deploying physical and virtual firewalls to segment their networks and reduce the attack surface. The latter has gained even more importance due to remote work bringing a large number of IoT devices into the fray. As per Palo Alto Networks’ Global IoT Survey 2021, over 84% enterprises have seen non-business IoT devices pop up in their network which makes attack surface reduction a top priority. Additionally, given the hyper-connectedness of networks today, an ironclad strategy that leverages automation backed by AI/ML to offer complete visibility of all devices is needed to significantly enhance threat perception and prevention.

Managing critical events and emergency incidents

 Having full visibility and control of your network in the event of an attack is critical for efficient threat management. Therefore, single-platform architecture should be an integral part of the cybersecurity blueprint of an organisation. Platforms bring network, cloud, and endpoint security onto one unified plane making easy work of source detection. Additionally, by helping isolate the mal-functioning systems from the other safe systems within the network, platforms improve response time and bring greater optimisation to enterprise security. Integrating OT security into the platform is also essential for managing emergency incidents as any breach on the IT side can very easily spill over to the operations side, leading to potentially severe consequences for the enterprise. Palo Alto Networks’ Panorama is a great fit for this use case as it offers easy-to-implement, centralized management features that provide insight into network-wide traffic and simplify configurations.

The solutions to protect the infrastructure

 Every product within Palo Alto Networks’ comprehensive portfolio provides the visibility, intelligence, automation, and flexibility needed for even the most complex organisations to advance. To uphold network security, we have our VM and CN series Next Gen Firewalls (NGFWs) that are driven by our Nebula OS which is backed with AI and deep inline learning. The multiple cloud environments that the modern enterprise operates in are protected by our Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) line which includes Prisma Access, Prisma SD-WAN, and Okyo Garde. Our Cortex range that includes Cortex XDR, Cortex XSOAR, Cortex XPANSE, and Cortex XSIAM, help enterprises conduct security operations that are well-matched for today’s threat landscape.

On the Increase of cyberattacks

 Remote and hybrid workspaces have made our interactions with smart, intuitive devices all the more pervasive, generating reams of digital data that now double up in existing physical spaces. This has prompted cybercriminals to shift focus from enterprises to individuals and their homes. There is an urgent need for organizations to evolve beyond their corporate networks, deploy remote work solutions and bring unified security policy management to remote employees. This is where SASE solutions will be critical in bringing about both security and operational efficiency. Even global destabilization events have played their part, leading to a rise in large-scale cyber-attacks in the form of DDoS, ransomware, supply-chain threats, and more. The volatility of the current geopolitical situation remains a cause of concern. While threats can kick off in a particular region, the interconnectedness of the services and infrastructures used by employees and consumers daily could easily set-off reactions in other regions.

Dipesh Kaura, General Manager, Kaspersky (South Asia)

Kaspersky OS helps enterprises to secure systems infrastructure with targeted solutions

 
Impact of cyber-attacks on the critical infrastructure of companies

The growing frequency of cyberattacks, especially with a financial motive, is directly related in part to the weakening of the cryptocurrency market. The fall in bitcoin prices has made the market less lucrative than before.

People dealing in this area are highly sophisticated in the use of advanced technology. Some of them have turned their focus to co-coordinating cyberattacks against enterprises as yet another way to make money. For those who are adept with technology, cyber warfare is also as lucrative as it is difficult to trace or investigate.

What this means for people like you and me is that cyberthreat is now a part and parcel of our digital lives and that size of our business is no longer a determinant of the type of risk. We all must treat our digital assets as if they are at potentially high risk of a cyberthreat.

 Thus, it is an area which medium to large enterprises simply cannot afford to ignore. Adding to the melee is the growth of a hybrid work model, which has contributed to increased vulnerability of enterprise systems infrastructure to cyberthreats. Companies are on their toes as they rightly should be.

 
Managing critical events and emergency incidents

In our field the saying is common that there are only two kinds of people out there: Those who have faced a cyberattack and those who are going to.

 This is why at Kaspersky we advise our client partners that our preparedness at any level of our business scale or growth should ideally be the maximum we can afford to have. Successful security measures rely majorly on vigilance to pinpoint upcoming trends from across the globe, supported by data analysis in real time. For enterprises to do this in-house requires highly evolved systems in terms of expertise and infrastructure – often deemed impossible. Therefore, for best-in-class protection, enterprises seek out the experts.

Kaspersky offers a host of solutions that address wide-ranging cybersecurity issues ranging from endpoint devices to cybersecurity intelligence based on global research undertaken by our scientists dedicated to the task. At the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, we presented stand-alone apps such as Kaspersky Safe Kids, Kaspersky Password Manager, Kaspersky VPN Secure Connection and more, along with Kaspersky DNS Filter to help mobile operators protect users on their network.

The solutions to protect the infrastructure

Kaspersky OS is specifically designed to help enterprises secure their systems infrastructure with targeted solutions for securing remote workplaces, Internet of Things infrastructure, and even smart vehicles. Our Threat Management and Defence system is globally recognized for the superior protection it offers enterprises and is used by leading large players in core sectors across the world. It includes hybrid cloud security, IoT& embedded security, threat management and defence, industrial cybersecurity, and fraud prevention.

Sumit Srivastava, Solutions Engineering Manager - India, CyberArk

Critical infrastructure organizations must prioritize the security of privileged accounts

Impact of cyber-attacks on the critical infrastructure of companies

There has been a huge shift in the way attackers target critical data and assets, especially with the digitalization that the pandemic has brought about. Reactive approaches or traditional security defenses promising to keep attackers out are simply not enough.

Organizations need to take an “assume breach” approach to security and put proactive controls in place to protect their most sensitive credentials – the ones that attackers increasingly seek out to carry out attacks. The sobering truth is that attackers may already be hiding inside their networks, undetected and looking for the right pathway to access sensitive data. Organizations need to be able to shut down those pathways.

Managing critical events and emergency incidents

Organizations need to adopt a proactive approach to cyber security to reduce their concern about how to manage the risk. On an organizational level, this means training staff to think like an attacker and identify potential security vulnerabilities, before they are exposed by outsiders with malicious intentions.

Engaging in Red Team services is a valuable exercise to simulate a cyber-attack. These ‘ethical hackers’ can exploit discovered vulnerabilities to penetrate company systems and networks and remain undetected for as long as possible to determine what sort of damage could be done under a real attack. 

By doing this, organizations will not only be able to discover how vulnerable they are to an attack, but also have an opportunity to play out risk mitigation techniques and prioritize assets for protection. Knowing how an attack could impact the business and establishing a game plan for response is critical to gaining a greater understanding of risk exposure.

The solutions to protect the infrastructure

CyberArk is the global leader in Identity Security, providing the most comprehensive security offering for any identity – human or machine – across business applications, distributed workforces, hybrid cloud workloads, and throughout the DevOps lifecycle.

On the Increase of cyberattacks

The implications of an attack on our nation’s essential industries are far reaching – from disrupting delivery of key services to impacting public safety. The damage from a cyber-attack is no longer contained to the digital world as attacks can have grave consequences in the physical realm. The security of privileged accounts represents a top priority for critical infrastructure organizations in order to mitigate these risks.

Nitin Varma, Managing Director - India & SAARC, CrowdStrike

Cybersecurity should be woven into the digital fabric

Impact of cyber-attacks on the critical infrastructure of companies

Every industry in recent years has undergone rapid digital transformation coupled with cloud innovation. Cloud has been viewed as an innovation vehicle to deliver the full potential of a business and advance business objectives. Many organizations are increasingly leveraging cloud technologies so as to accelerate their digital journey.

While the rapid adoption of digital technologies helps in implementing new and disruptive business models and processes, it also involves risks, increasing cyberattacks being the biggest risk factor. The proliferation of connected devices coupled with today’s vanishing perimeter and evolving threat landscape complicate an already complex environment for organizations to secure.

In the current scenario, it's not uncommon to hear about cyber-attacks against the critical infrastructure of countries around the world. Needless to say, they play a vital role in a country’s functioning and should be kept safe from internal and external intrusions. Therefore, the security and resilience of critical infrastructures is a growing concern among governments. Some common cyber threat vectors faced by critical infrastructures include ransomware, compromised credentials, malware, phishing, DDoS attacks, infiltrations of IoT devices, zero-day vulnerabilities, advanced persistent threats (APTs) and social engineering.

Managing critical events and emergency incidents

CrowdStrike’s Global Threat Report 2022 highlights how state-sponsored adversaries weaponized vulnerabilities to evade detection and gain access to critical applications and infrastructure. As per the report, in 2021, China-nexus actors emerged as the leader in vulnerability exploitation and shifted tactics to increasingly target internet-facing devices and services like Microsoft Exchange. CrowdStrike Intelligence confirmed China-nexus actor exploitation of 12 vulnerabilities published in 2021. Due to the number of potentially affected endpoints, Log4Shell received more attention than any other vulnerability in India and other regions.

To address these challenges, cyber-security should be woven into the digital fabric so as to achieve a state of “security by design”. Just meeting compliance requirements is not enough. Timely detection of intrusions is a crucial element of every comprehensive cybersecurity strategy. The earlier an organization can detect an attack, the less impact it will have on the business and the easier it will be to resolve.

The solutions to protect the infrastructure

More organizations should adopt threat hunting to look for unknown threats and attack behaviours proactively. It allows a more comprehensive view of the threat landscape, enabling them to stay ahead of any attacks. It will further improve their ability to thwart breaches by providing better situational awareness for quicker mitigation of attacks. Moreover, adding these tactics to risk management sets a higher standard of accountability for protecting public sector data against adversaries.

Whether the goal of cybercriminals is monetary gains, compromising data, or causing operational disruptions, timely intervention and visibility across the threat landscape with continuous learning about new tactics will be the key. Other points to consider include protecting all workloads, adopting zero trust, monitoring the criminal underground, eliminating misconfigurations, investing in elite threat hunting and building a cybersecurity culture with user awareness programs to combat the continued threat of phishing and related social engineering techniques.”

Kesavardhanan Jayaraman, Founder and CEO, K7 Computing

Cybersecurity must be made a national security priority

Impact of cyber-attacks on the critical infrastructure of companies

Digital transformation is being embraced by every sector and that creates opportunities for threat actors, who strike at high-profile targets to cause widespread disruption or increase the likelihood of being paid a ransom quickly. Such threats, which may be internal or external, can be countered by adopting a proactive cybersecurity posture. Defence in depth must be followed in critical-infrastructure companies to ensure that redundant cybersecurity layers are available to thwart multi-vector attacks.

In addition, cybersecurity must be made a national security priority with the promotion of domestic defensive capabilities, as attacks against critical infrastructure are often backed by nation states.

To ensure protection

DSCI/PwC estimated the average cost of a data breach in India to be Rs. 11.9 Crores in 2019. That number has undoubtedly increased, and represents the cost for a single organisation. Attacks on infrastructure impact multiple organisations leading to vast and incalculable losses.

In addition to the measures discussed under the previous question, K7 believes threats to infrastructure can be mitigated by revamping organisational cybersecurity to ensure all devices, networks, data, and users are continuously protected; international co-operation to identify and defeat emerging cyberthreats; and industry action to address the cybersecurity talent deficit.

Managing critical events and emergency incidents

If a cyber attacker does manage to slip through an organisation’s defences, managing the incident will be easier if comprehensive incident response and disaster recovery plans are in place. The plans should include containment and recovery strategies for a variety of scenarios; technical, legal, and public relations responsibilities should be clearly defined and assigned; and critical personnel should be available on public holidays and weekends, when attacks are more likely to occur. Plans should be tested periodically through attack simulations to ensure the organisation’s ability to respond effectively has not deteriorated due to changes in technology, processes, or staff.

The solutions to protect the infrastructure

K7 Security offers international award-winning multi-layered cybersecurity solutions and training programmes for security-sensitive organisations. K7 Endpoint Security protects business devices from the latest cyberthreats including ransomware, APTs and spear phishing, simplifies organisation-wide cybersecurity management, and is available in on-premises and cloud deployment models. K7’s suite of Network Security appliances provides gateway security for the enterprise network, VPN, and AAA (Authentication, Authorisation, and Accounting) for access control. Complementing our technology offerings, K7 Academy delivers training programmes which impart cybersecurity awareness for all staff, customised knowhow for employees who handle critical tasks, and advanced cybersecurity skills for the organisation’s IT/SoC team.

Parag Khurana, Regional Sales Director, Outside Sales, Barracuda Networks (India)

Barracuda envisions building a safer world and protecting the customers

Impact of cyber-attacks on the critical infrastructure of companies

Critical infrastructure will continue to face significant security challenges in 2022. This critical infrastructure includes everything from energy and financial services to education and healthcare. In August 2021, Barracuda researchers have identified a 64% y-o-y increase in ransomware and attackers are heavily targeting municipalities, healthcare, education, infrastructure, with infrastructure-related businesses accounting for 11% of all the attacks studied. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that cybercriminals are willing to exploit the crisis to attack critical infrastructures like healthcare and the vaccine supply chain which have the most direct impact on people’s lives.

Managing critical events and emergency incidents

When it comes to incident response, time is money. Having an incident response strategy can minimize the effects of a potentially devastating attack. First, it should start with preparing a plan by aligning technology, people, and processes. Businesses should deploy technology to defend against attacks and leverage an automated incident response platform. Creating a security culture is also a key; therefore, businesses should provide security awareness training and actionable process for incident response to employees and make these readily available for quick reference. Second, when it escalates to an incident response, go to an incident response platform that provides you with the capabilities of a central location to monitor and prioritize threats that have been reported and proactive threat hunting using a wide variety of classifiers, as well as automatic remediation of malicious activities. Third, identify the nature of the attack, its scope, and the impact on users and infrastructure. Once that happens, contain its impacts and respond swiftly to minimise the spread of the attacks, and recover any lost data and improve your security posture.

The solutions to protect the infrastructure

We at Barracuda envisions to build a safer world and protect our customers’ email, networks, data, and applications by offering innovative security solutions that are easy to buy, deploy, and use. We offer a dedicated Barracuda CloudGen Firewall product line for securing Industrial IoT and Operational Technology networks with multi-layered security to detect and block advanced threats, including zero-day and ransomware attacks. It provides comprehensive protection for on-premises and multi-cloud deployment using the next-generation firewall technologies built in and for the cloud. Remote maintenance access is designed securely with traditional VPN clients or the zero-trust network access solution Barracuda CloudGen Access, which simplifies and secures remote access by enabling Zero Trust for any device. In addition, our Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) platform offers an integrated service that brings together Firewall-as-a-Service, SD-WAN, Zero Trust Network Access, and Secure Web Gateway as core capabilities, allowing organizations to control access to data and enforce security inspection and policy enforcement. In combination with enterprise security solutions such as Barracuda Email Protection, an AI-powered email security solutions to defend businesses against evolving email threats, Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service to protect all the apps from threats, Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud Backup to protect Microsoft 365 data, and various product integrations with technology partners, we have a comprehensive package of measures to defend businesses against modern attacks.

 Surojit Dasgupta, Country Manager - India and SAARC, Lookout
 

Advanced cyber-attacks are no longer reserved only for well-funded organizations
 

Impact of cyber-attacks on the critical infrastructure of companies

IT and security teams no longer have to worry just about data that exists within the four walls of their network perimeter. In fact, that perimeter has disappeared

• With expanded reliance on cloud services, employees working from anywhere, and data constantly moving between managed and unmanaged devices and networks, the security ecosystem has become far more complex. 
• Attackers know that visibility is an issue for most organizations and take advantage of that to use discrete compromise tactics to grant themselves access to sensitive data. 

There has also been massive growth in the malware-as-a-service (MaaS) market, which makes it easier for less sophisticated actors to execute advanced attacks. 

• This means that advanced cyberattacks are no longer reserved for well-funded groups and nation state actors. 
• As cybercrime groups sell their malware, the income will help them fund research into more advanced tactics and hiring more talent. They run themselves like small businesses. 

Managing critical events and emergency incidents

It is critical that IT and security teams have a disaster recovery plan in place, and that the plan is locally accessible. 

• This helps ensure that they can access it in the chance an attacker locks them out of their cloud infrastructure. 
• There should also be measures in place that help contain the threat wherever it happens so it cannot spread to additional parts of the infrastructure or infect third party solutions that you have integrated with your infrastructure. 

The solutions to protect the infrastructure

The Lookout Security Platform enables organizations of all industries and sizes to protect data as it moves between countless users, devices, and networks both in the cloud and on-premises. 

• Pulling together mobile security, cloud access security broker (CASB), zero trust network access (ZTNA), and secure web gateway (SWG) brings together a number of critical elements for protecting data and enabling a zero trust approach to infrastructure security. 
• By understanding the context under which a user is trying to access data, the content they’re trying to access, and the risk they could pose based on the posture of their account or device, admins can implement intelligent policies that proactively protect sensitive data from being compromised. 

On the Increase of cyberattacks

Threat actors will always take advantage of social or political uncertainty to increase the likelihood that their attacks are successful. 

• When people are uncertain about where to turn for reliable information, they will take whatever they can get. Attackers use this to their advantage to execute socially engineered phishing campaigns and compromise corporate credentials. 
• Internal security teams might also be focusing their resources on enabling hybrid work, which could leave existing legacy systems vulnerable or without much surveillance. 
• It’s impossible to manually oversee every asset all the time, which is why it’s so important to ensure you have proactive coverage in place for any potential entry point that an attacker could have.

Dhananjay Ganjoo, Managing Director,India and SAARC, F5
 

Companies should opt for a 'Never trust’ approach to protect themselves
 

Impact of cyber-attacks on the critical infrastructure of companies

In the last few years, the pandemic has driven businesses to embrace hybrid work models for seamless business continuity, which in turn creates more exposure to critical vulnerabilities in the remote work environment. Some of the most common vulnerabilities include unsecured remote work endpoints, lack of VPN protection, and unauthorized app data access. These vulnerabilities expose the companies to cyber-attacks and can lead to costly consequences.

Managing critical events and emergency incidents

Adopting a solid cybersecurity framework with a zero-trust security model can help organizations avoid irreversible and enormous losses. Companies must opt for a 'Never trust, always verify, continuously monitor' approach to protect the app from bad actors. Additionally, companies can plan, detect, and respond to threats in real-time by embedding machine learning and artificial intelligence in their web application firewall (WAF) and Web App and API Protection (WAAP) solutions.

The solutions to protect the infrastructure

Our newly launched F5 Distributed Cloud WAAP provides best-of-breed capabilities for web application firewall (WAF), distributed denial of service (DDoS), bot detection, and API protection as a service. F5’s Distributed Cloud WAAP is unique in its ability to provide end-to-end observability and real-time visibility across the entire deployment without requiring integration and/or automation tools enabling companies to have differentiated digital experiences for their end customers.