How to Reduce Risk with Defense-in-Depth Cybersecurity

Prior to the pandemic, businesses had begun to change their approach to operations and security. The pandemic simply increased their focus as employees pushed for the transition of their workforces from on-site to hybrid and remote. This expanded and moved data footprints from on-premises to hybrid cloud infrastructures and increased the implementation of digital tools and technologies. Modern Office IT characteristics have become a typical implementation in today’s companies.

However, while businesses are reaping numerous benefits, such as increased productivity and efficiency, there has been a negative aspect. Businesses had already been opting to counter cybercrime before the pandemic by increasing their businesses’ IT security levels. According to Statista, 2020 saw the highest budget percentage of businesses allocated to IT security at 12.8%. However, this has only just seemed to increase the number and sophistication of cyber-attacks.

Enter the defense-in-depth security model or DiD. DiD is an IT security model based on the idea that a solitary layer of defense in IT will never be adequate, but a specific arrangement of multiple layers that can rebuff attacks and help IT professionals know what to work on before the next wave of attacks come will improve IT security. Read on to learn more about the defense-in-depth model.

What is Defense-in-Depth?

The defense-in-depth model is an IT security approach that employs a multiple-layered defensive mechanism to protect a business’s data and systems. The idea is that, with layering, the failure of one layer can be supported by the other layers present in the mechanism. This redundancy increases a business’ level of security and can also help adequately protect that business from different forms of online attacks.

Defense-in-depth combines the implementation of human and technical resources and facilities to create multiple security layers that will rebuff attacks from cybercriminals. This is quite stronger than the single-layer approach, where, for instance, a business decides to use the MFA security approach only, which, when bypassed, gives the hacker access to the company network.

With a DiD approach, cybercriminals are sure to face various defenses, which might be arranged in a specified order, all in a bid to stop the assault and ensure the cybercriminal has a very unpleasant experience when attacking the DiD setup.

How Defense-in-Depth Works

The Defense-in-Depth model is a cue from standard military strategy, where an opponent’s strike is met with an intentional minor attack instead of an equal one to understand the opponent’s tactics better and develop a better approach to win the battle. However, this approach in cybersecurity is much different from how the military implements it; instead of attacking the advanced attack, you create a set of layers that prevents the hacker from getting into the system.

Defense-in-depth is also referred to as the castle approach due to its similarity with a castle having multiple forms of defense. Also, while using conventional business network strategies, Defense-in-Depth also uses advanced digital measures to create complex and robust security systems and prevent successful attacks.

How Does Defense-in-Depth Reduce Risks of Cyber-attacks?

Here are some ways by which defense-in-depth prevents successful attacks on your systems and data:

Authentication

The Defense-in-Depth model executes various authentication tactics to allow devices and users to access applications, data, and systems. Along with the usual password security and biometrics, MFA authentication and single sign-on policies can also be applied. Single sign-on is preferred among these two, as it affords users the chance to securely log in to various platforms and applications with just a sole set of credentials and login details.

Monitoring and prevention

Defense-in-depth uses different tools and policies to identify cyber threats and data breaches and protect corporate networks’ security setups. Common measures used in this stage are auditing and logging, sandboxing, and vulnerability scanning. Cybersecurity training is also essential as it helps employees and users understand individual and collective roles and responsibilities in preventing data breaches and, should they occur, handling data breaches.

Also, organizations can leverage cutting-edge techs like machine learning, artificial intelligence, and big data analytics, which helps businesses run proper behavioral analyses of devices and users when data is in transit and at rest. This will help cybersecurity teams quickly recognize inconsistencies and put the prevention plan in motion to ensure there is no breach. Patch management should also not be ignored in the monitoring and prevention process.

Endpoint security

Securing the endpoints or entry points of user devices is also an essential aspect and way to reduce risk with Defense-in-Depth cybersecurity. Utilizing anti-spam and antivirus software, EDR (endpoint detection and response) systems and endpoint privilege management are different ways companies can increase their endpoint security.

Network security

Protecting your company network is vital, as it is usually the foundation for operations. Whether your employees are on or off company premises, they will always need to log in to the company network to get work done. Firewalls, VPNs, network segmentation, and intrusion prevention/detection systems are some measures that can help in this regard.

Firewalls help identify and block access to the network, and VPNs serve as a secure channel through which external users can get into a network without hassle. Network segmentation ensures that different aspects of the network are kept separate to help keep the effect of a breach to a minimum. While intrusion prevention/detection systems detect and report suspicious activities to the company IT staff to take action before it is too late.

Data protection and backup

Encrypting and hashing have always been a way to secure data and ensure unauthorized users cannot modify or destroy it. Hence, including this as part of the defense-in-depth model is a good way to reduce risk. Apart from data protection, backup is also advised.

Access to a dependable backup and restore SaaS helps businesses recover quicker from unfortunate events like network or system crashes, which malicious actors usually cause. These events have the ability to slow business operations, putting the company in debt or even out of business entirely. Therefore, you can resume operation in hours or minutes with encrypted backups and data protection.

Secure Your Business with a Custom Defense-in-Depth Model from BrainStomp

Increasing your company’s cybersecurity levels is essential to maintaining competitiveness in your industry and niche. BrainStomp is dedicated to helping you in this regard.

Contact our team to get started.