According to the CrowdStrike 2023 Threat Hunting Report, organisations face increasing cyber threats including massive increases in identity-based intrusions and adversaries targeting the cloud. These attacks can have severe consequences for business operations and reputation. Legacy security measures are no longer enough to protect against these threats, leading to the necessity of security transformation. This article explores the evolving role of security from risk mitigation to enabling organisations, the impact of security transformation on an organisation’s risk posture, and critical areas for CIOs and CISOs to focus on for effective enterprise security.The evolving role of security
Legacy security solutions are encountering new challenges and limitations in the face of modern cyber threats. As organisations grapple with increasingly sophisticated attacks, security transformation is a vital strategy to reevaluate and enhance security posture.
Traditionally, security focused on protecting on premise assets and data, primarily relying on perimeter defenses and signature-based approaches. However, the evolving threat landscape, characterised by hacktivists, nation-state actors, eCrime actors and shifts in the tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) for advanced persistent threats, has rendered these methods inadequate. The limitations of legacy security approaches, such as those that are signature-based, are evident in their inability to detect and thwart novel attacks that exploit vulnerabilities across various entry points or malware-free attacks that make up 71% of interactive intrusions.
Security transformation involves a comprehensive overhaul of security strategies, emphasising proactive measures to detect, prevent, and respond to threats. This approach necessitates embracing modern technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and behavioral analytics to identify anomalous patterns and potential breaches. By adopting a proactive, dynamic and context-aware defense mechanism, organisations can enhance their ability to identify and mitigate risks promptly.
By centralising security data, organisations can gain comprehensive insights into threats, vulnerabilities, and attack trends, empowering them to make informed strategic decisions. CrowdStrike‘s platform, for instance, provides organisations with up-to-date information on emerging threats and adversary tactics, enabling proactive defense strategies. This intelligence-driven approach ensures that organisations are well-prepared to respond to evolving threats in real-time.
The impact of security transformation
Security transformation offers a multitude of benefits. It can significantly reduce risks and minimise the potential fallout from cyberattacks. It can also reduce the complexity that has crept into the security stack by identifying consolidation opportunities that not only improve visibility across different logical domains but also reduces overall costs for businesses.
By embracing proactive measures and advanced technologies, organisations bolster their resilience against evolving threats. Moreover, security transformation reshapes an organisation’s security posture, enhancing its capability to confidently defend against threats. Security transformation not only encompasses technological advancements but also organisational structure, cultural shifts, workforce empowerment, and adjustments to operational models across the business.
CIOs and CISOs play a pivotal role in driving security transformation within organisations. Their focus spans critical aspects, starting with the adoption of a holistic security strategy. This involves orchestrating a blend of advanced technologies to fortify defenses against modern threats. Equally vital is nurturing a security-conscious culture across all levels of the organisation, fostering a collective commitment to safeguarding assets. And they’re doing all of this often under the spectre of tightened budgetary controls.
CrowdStrike’s approach highlights starting with endpoint security, enabling visibility, detection, prevention, and response to breaches. Moving to identity protection is crucial due to the surge in complex attacks, as well as shifting from runtime compromise to identity exploitation. Cloud environments emerge as another vital area given the acceleration of digital transformation from businesses. This demands a tailored approach given the unique architecture and operations. Integrating security into the development cycle, i.e., ‘shifting security to the left’, is pivotal to preemptively address vulnerabilities before runtime. CIOs and CISOs must navigate these domains, ensuring cohesive security strategies that align with evolving threat landscapes and organisational structures.
Continuous monitoring of threats also remains paramount. Security leaders must champion adaptive security measures that can swiftly respond to emerging threats. Such agility ensures a proactive stance, enabling rapid mitigation and reducing potential damage.
In terms of organisational structure, we often see customers use CrowdStrike solutions to enable better business processes aligning security to the goals of other teams and departments. For example, the security organisation may or may not be part of the IT business, the IT department may have different capabilities with a different cost structure. Having different data sets across different teams in one place through one solution provides greater operational consolidation, visibility into threats and hence on the risks.
By embracing these multifaceted responsibilities, CIOs and CISOs not only safeguard data but also position their organisations to thrive in an increasingly interconnected and evolving digital ecosystem.
Fabio Fratucello is the Field CTO, International, CrowdStrike. The views in this article are personal and do not represent the organisation’s views.
