The IT network of your company has numerous SaaS applications and API connections, is always online, and can be accessed by staff members and vendors anywhere in the world. As a result, your company is constantly at risk from cyber-attacks, some of which may be prevented but many of which cannot. Your cybersecurity spend and, in turn, your cybersecurity posture are determined by your cyber-risk tolerance or the types and amounts of risk that, generally speaking, a company is ready to accept in its pursuit of value. In earlier times, installing signature-based antivirus at the endpoints and implementing a firewall to protect the network were regarded as sufficient measures to provide a medium level of cybersecurity. Such a posture is out of date due to the threat landscape’s change, which exposes the company to extremely high levels of cyber risk.

 

Risks that can be prevented by putting into practice common cybersecurity procedures (such as patch management, multi-factor authentication, strong password restrictions, least privilege access, security awareness training, and others) are known as avoidable risks. What is acceptable exposure to unavoidable risk (our cyber-risk tolerance) and how can we best align to it (our cybersecurity posture) are the important questions to ask yourself and your company.

 

What kind of cyber risks can’t be avoided?

 

They essentially fall into three categories:

 

1.Infrastructure risks

 

According to Privileged Access Threat Report | BeyondTrust, the typical firm uses more than 450 distinct software programs and permits weekly access to 182 partners and vendors. In a world where connectivity and tool standardization are essential for conducting business, these hazards cannot be avoided.

 

2.Industry-centric risks

 

There is no way to completely eliminate the risks associated with working in your line of work. For instance, due to the high prices they command on the black market, electronic health records (EHR) are a desirable target for attackers. These dangers cannot be totally eliminated by a healthcare organization. What kind of risk does your industry entail?

 

3.Human-centric risks

 

People make mistakes. Insider threats (both malevolent and inadvertent) remain a possibility and cannot be completely ruled out.

 

In order to reduce these risks, you must essentially do the following:

 

  • Coverage – User behavior, network, endpoint, and application activity are ways for you to recognize and list these hazards.

 

  • Monitoring – The capacity to set up the system for ongoing dependability and efficacy, conduct threat hunting, and ingest telemetry.

 

  • Detection – Utilize threat intelligence and machine learning to connect seemingly unrelated occurrences and spot actual cyberthreats.

 

  • Response – Utilize automated incident response to triage a breach and contain an attack while security specialists finish thorough remediation and forensic investigation using actionable intelligence on priority risks.

 

What steps should you take to strengthen your cybersecurity posture?

 

Organizations who recognize the necessity of such services for effective defense against contemporary threats are highly accepting of managed detection and response (MDR) services.

 

MDR services can offer a greater range of coverage than just managed endpoint detection and response software. 

 

The size of the global MDR market is anticipated to increase, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 16.0% from 2022 to 2027, from an estimated value of USD 2.6 billion to USD 5.6 billion. Addressing the dearth of qualified cybersecurity workers, financial restrictions, governmental laws, and stringent regulatory compliance are a few of the factors influencing the market’s growth.

 

What advantages in terms of risk reduction do MDR services offer? Simply put, this service lowers unavoidable cyber-risk.

 

For your company’s needs today and tomorrow, is there a scalable MDR approach?

 

Your company is not a static thing. It is constantly evolving and, hopefully, expanding. Usually, an organization’s tolerance for cyber risk decreases as it grows. How can you invest in a suitable MDR solution to address your current risk appetite without having to tear it out and replace it when your risk appetite changes in the future?

 

To create a cybersecurity posture that is in line with your organization’s tolerance for cyber risk, your MDR solution should be flexible along two axes.

 

  • Breadth of coverage – Prioritize your assets according on risk, starting with the ones that pose the greatest danger, such as your network, endpoints, servers, SaaS, cloud infrastructure, etc. Your MDR solution should be scalable in terms of how many and which assets are covered, both up and down.

 

  • Depth of Protection – Prioritize the fundamental and most effective security measures, such as continuous security monitoring, cybersecurity alert evaluations that range from monthly to weekly to daily, a vulnerability management program, proactive threat hunting, etc. Many of these should integrate with or be available through your MDR solution, and you should be able to enable or disable them as necessary.

 

 

What additional MDR characteristics can affect the alignment of the cybersecurity posture and cyber risk tolerance?

 

When choosing an MDR solution, look into the following three main characteristics:

 

  • Is it Extended Detection and Response (XDR)? XDR (Extended Detection & Response) is an improvement on threat detection and incident response (TDIR) that successfully destroys the conventional data and environment silos of legacy SecOps platforms to deliver wider attack surface visibility, deeper threat detection, and ultimately faster incident response. Other security measures may still be effective in conjunction with XDR. Instead, in order to decrease noise, detect actual Indicators of Compromise (IoCs), activate the proper automatic reaction, and deliver meaningful alerts, XDR solutions must ingest, normalize, and correlate telemetry from all sources, including SIEM, EDR, and UEBA.

 

  • Is it open? When it comes to the breadth of its protection, Open XDR is a type of XDR that is vendor-neutral. Open XDR, also known as Hybrid XDR, is intended to work with other security technologies rather than taking them out and replacing them. As a result, they are “open” to consume anything the platform is capable of. Examining the number and caliber of data source integrations that the Open XDR platform offers, however, is the key.

 

  • Is it managed? In addition to platform hosting and tuning, Managed XDR also offers a jointly developed SecOps Runbook, an IR Playbook, round-the-clock security monitoring, proactive threat hunting, and guided remediation support through our 24×7 SOC (Security Operations Center).

 

 

Award-winning CYB3R-X Managed Open XDR is a service that addresses these risks efficiently and affordably thanks to our own platform and service. Want to strengthen your security posture without going broke? Contact us today or email us at demo@cyb3r-x.com for a demo.