In the past, cybersecurity was simpler and easier to prevent attacks, but the current digital environment requires more than just a single solution. A layered cybersecurity strategy refers to having multiple tools, systems, and processes that overlap to provide preventative and proactive cybersecurity. This article explains why layered security is important, and how organizations can achieve it.
Companies of All Sizes Need to Protect Themselves Against a Potential Attack
An area of a company's IT known as the attack surface is where bad actors can focus to compromise and potentially break into the organization. The larger the attack surface, the more a company needs to do to defend and secure it. This includes endpoints such as laptops, servers, and remote devices, cloud usage, IoT devices, employees, and hybrid workers. Companies are under threat of more advanced attacks that leverage vulnerabilities outside of traditional endpoints and are often carried out with more research and targeted precision.
Endpoint Security is Not Enough
Organizations can build comprehensive security through a layered cybersecurity strategy that incorporates preventative controls, proactive action, detection, and response capabilities. The strategy should include visibility, detection, hardening, cloud security, and response. Visibility allows companies to have awareness of everything in their environment, like knowing all the entry points and knowing where important documents are kept. Detection tools like endpoint detection and response (EDR) and extended detection and response (XDR) are useful for identifying any unauthorized users or malicious attacks occurring in the environment. Hardening ensures the minimization of the risk of an attack through processes like patch management, targeted security controls, and tools like email security and full-disk encryption. Cloud security is crucial to protect cloud-based files, servers, and containers. Response tools such as EDR, XDR, and response services can help remove attackers or minimize the damage they can do to a company.