October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, the perfect time to brush up on your digital defense skills! Think of it like locking your digital front door except instead of keys, you’ve got strong passwords, multi-factor authentication, and a few smart habits to keep you safe.
While it’s easy to get caught up in big-picture business strategies and growth goals, cybersecurity should always be top of mind for today’s organizations. Keeping your business secure isn’t just a one-time task — it’s an ongoing priority that protects the foundation of everything else you’re building. Taking the time to strengthen your cyber defenses ensures that your company can focus on the future without leaving any doors open for digital threats.
While Cybersecurity Awareness Month is a great reminder, it should be a year-round priority. Led by the National Cybersecurity Alliance (NCA) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the initiative promotes staying aware of cyber threats and protecting your data.
To help raise your company’s security awareness and overall resilience in the face of risk, we are presenting an overview of 6 critical focus areas for cybersecurity in 2024, along with recent real-world examples and related solutions you should know about.
1) AI-Powered Threats
Focus Area: Attackers are increasingly using AI to generate sophisticated phishing emails, deepfakes, and automated attacks, making identifying fraudulent communications harder for users. AI can be trained to imitate colleagues and superiors so that phishing emails become more convincing and persuasive than ever.
Real-World Example: In 2023, OpenAI and other organizations faced a rise in AI-generated phishing emails that mimicked legitimate communications with precision. These AI-crafted messages targeted employees, exploiting their trust and increasing the risk of successful attacks.
Solution Options:
- IBM QRadar: Leverage AI-powered threat intelligence to fight AI-generated threats.
- Exabeam: Use AI-drive automation to detect threats.
- Vectra AI: Attack Signal Intelligence prioritizes advanced threats.
2) Zero Trust Security
Focus Area: Adopting a Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA), in which users and devices are continuously verified before being granted access, has become essential as workforces grow more remote and cloud based, creating perimeter-less environments. To follow a Zero Trust approach to security, companies need to adopt tools for identity and access control. Businesses can start by implementing least-privilege access controls and device validation, which are core elements of Zero Trust.
Real-World Example: In 2023, Okta suffered a breach involving social engineering attacks targeting their support engineers. This incident reinforced the need for a Zero Trust model, prompting Okta to implement stricter internal controls and continuous verification.
Solution Options:
- Okta: Control access for the entire identity lifecycle.
- Zscaler: The Zero Trust Exchange Platform uses the cloud to lay a foundation for security.
- Palo Alto Networks: Prisma Access delivers Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) via the cloud.
3) Ransomware and Data Recovery
Focus Area: Ransomware attacks continue to devastate organizations, with many now utilizing double extortion tactics. Having a robust backup and data recovery strategy is critical for guaranteeing resilience after a ransomware attack. Making regular, immutable backups and storing them offline helps your business recover more quickly without the need to pay a ransom.
Real-World Example: In 2023, the City of Oakland faced a crippling ransomware attack that disrupted city services and operations. The attackers threatened to release sensitive data, underscoring the need for strong recovery strategies to avoid paying ransoms.
Solution Options:
- Rubrik: Rubrik Security Cloud provides complete cyber resilience.
- Acronis: Take a consolidated and integrated approach to data protection.
- Veeam: Defend against ransomware with backup and disaster recovery.
4) Phishing Awareness
Focus Area: As phishing attacks grow more sophisticated, employee security awareness training and the use of multi-factor authentication (MFA) for email security are vital defenses. Workers can learn to identify and avoid suspicious emails.
Real-World Example: In 2023, Slack experienced a phishing attack where attackers used social engineering to compromise employee credentials, gaining unauthorized access to private company data. This breach highlighted the need for ongoing phishing awareness training and strong MFA policies.
Solution Options:
- KnowBe4: Benefit from AI-powered security awareness training and simulated phishing exercises.
- Proofpoint: Take a human-centric approach to email security.
- Cisco Duo Security: Secure your workforce through MFA and endpoint visibility.
5) Cloud and IoT Security
Focus Area: As cloud services and IoT devices proliferate, ensuring proper configurations, encryption, and access controls at your company is more important than ever. To secure data in multi-cloud environments and protect IoT devices, companies must continuously monitor their systems from the data center to the edge and enforce encryption policies for data at rest and in transit.
Real-World Examples:
Cloud Security: In 2023, Western Digital experienced a breach affecting its My Cloud service, resulting in downtime and potential data exposure. This incident highlighted the vulnerability of cloud services to misconfigurations.
IoT Security: Twice recently, Verkada, a security camera company, was breached, exposing footage from over 150,000 cameras worldwide in a single breach. This breach was due to vulnerabilities in their IoT devices and weak password management.
Solution Options:
- Check Point: Take a preventative and comprehensive approach to security with the Infinity Platform.
- Sophos: Use endpoint and network protection to defeat cyberattacks.
- Fortinet: Use SASE to strengthen your network security and harness threat intelligence.
6) Cyber Hygiene and Regular Updates
Focus Area: Practicing good cyber hygiene by regularly updating software and patching vulnerabilities is foundational to preventing many common types of attacks, including zero-day exploits that target new software.
Real-World Example: The MOVEit data breach in 2023, caused by an unpatched vulnerability in its file transfer tool, affected numerous organizations, including financial and healthcare institutions. This breach emphasized the importance of keeping systems up to date and automating security patches.
Solution Options:
- Tenable: Scan for vulnerabilities and expose threats.
- Qualys: Get a unified view of your entire cyber-risk posture.
- CrowdStrike: Use an AI-native platform to leverage complete protection.
Taking on Cybersecurity With Eyes Wide Open
In a perfect world, companies would focus on cybersecurity all year long. Realistically, that doesn’t happen. Cybersecurity Awareness Month is a great time to take stock and make sure your company is making IT security a priority. Why not take the time this month to rethink your security strategy based on your new awareness of current cybersecurity focus areas?
ProActive Solutions offers security and compliance services and solutions that can help your company modernize its cybersecurity strategy to tackle today’s top focus areas. We take a consultative approach to cybersecurity and partner with the leading providers of cybersecurity solutions so that our team is uniquely equipped to ensure your business is up to date in its approach to IT security.
Take the next step now that you’ve raised your security awareness. Request a consultation with ProActive to discuss your company’s key security focus areas and which tools to use.
