Strategic Relevance
Strategic relevance lies in brand reputation, IP, and data protection—considered crucial assets in today’s digitalized world driven by data exchange and AI/ML solutions. Even a single incident can result in significant financial repercussions, affecting market analysis, raising IT security concerns, and questioning workforce skills among shareholders. Therefore, a well-thought strategic initiative is imperative for safeguarding IT systems, data, IP, and networks, as they directly impact achieving business KPIs through technology enablement. Prioritizing IT security ensures the preservation of brand reputation, intellectual property, and sensitive data, fortifying the organization against potential risks and fostering long-term success.
Challenges & Opportunities
Generally, the challenges faced include: lack of context, lack of prioritization, absence of visibility of key stakeholders, inadequate collaboration, and proper escalation procedures. Moreover, accepting the possibility of an attack is also a major challenge, as it involves acknowledging and taking action, which may be hindered by role insecurity. Overcoming these challenges is crucial for effective incident response and ensuring the organization’s security and resilience.
Future Trends
- Rising attacks on OT and IoT devices.
- Increase in attacks on cloud services.
- AI-based reconnaissance with accurate information.
- MFA hacks (Multi-Factor Authentication).
- Increasing threat of deep fakes.
- Continuously evolving ransomware.
- Gaps in IT security skills and availability.
- Explosion of BYOD devices, inviting vulnerabilities.
Best Practices & Key takeaways
Implement policies and procedures to handle all security incidents. Raise awareness and communicate effectively with all stakeholders, not limited to IT teams. Determine the investigation scope, considering the impact on the organization’s mission. Gather incident indicators such as IOCs (Indicators of Compromise). Identify the root cause, including the attack vector, depth and breadth of compromised systems, users, services, or network. Adopt a continuous learning approach for the team to acquire the skills to handle evolving incident vectors.
