Migrating business systems to the cloud unlocks game-changing agility and innovation. But it also introduces new security challenges that require robust cloud-centric defenses. In this guide, we’ll outline 5 critical best practices for securing your cloud transformation journey.

1. Adopt a Zero Trust Approach

The perimeter-focused security models of the past must be replaced with a zero trust approach for the cloud era. Zero trust ensures all access is securely authenticated and authorized while limiting lateral movement after breaches.

Key zero trust capabilities like multi-factor authentication, microsegmentation, and least privilege access should be implemented across your cloud environment. As your organization adopts SaaS apps, take advantage of identity and access management tools to control access centrally.

2. Automate Security Hygiene and Compliance

Cloud environments are dynamic, so security controls and compliance checks need to be automated as code. Leverage infrastructure as code tools like Ansible, Terraform, and Kubernetes to repeatedly deploy hardened configurations.

Use policy as code tools like Chef InSpec to continuously validate that configurations adhere to security standards. Taking this DevSecOps approach embeds security into cloud management workflows.

3. Protect All Access Paths

While the cloud provider secures the physical infrastructure, you’re responsible for protecting access to your environments and data. Lock down admin console access, remote management ports, customer-facing services, and other endpoints.

Analyze network traffic patterns and limit access to only essential ports. Enforce multifactor authentication across every possible entry point. Authentication errors and access denied events should also be monitored as warnings.

4. Centralize Security Monitoring and Controls

The sprawl of cloud environments creates new monitoring and management challenges. Unify visibility and security controls across on-prem, hybrid, and multi-cloud through security platforms like Microsoft Sentinel.

This enables threat detection, behavioral monitoring, automated response playbooks, and more to be orchestrated from a single pane of glass. Prioritize integrations with cloud access control, workload protection, and analytics services.

5. Plan for Security Incidents

Despite best efforts, some threats may evade defenses, so cloud incident response planning is crucial. Document plans for critical scenarios, roles and responsibilities, technical playbooks, and communications.

Test effectiveness through simulated incidents, and conduct debriefs for continuous improvement. Planning for inevitable incidents enables agile, assured responses.

Securing cloud transformations requires aligning security models, controls, and processes to the new environment. Adopt the 5 best practices outlined above to enable security at cloud speed and scale. Partnering with experienced cloud security consultants like DBGM can help you implement these measures while avoiding missteps. Let us guide your cloud security journey.

Most organizations focus enormous efforts securing their internal environments. However, the exposed external attack surface requires equal attention, as this is how attackers initially access victims before pivoting internally. In this guide, we’ll explore how continuously monitoring your external attack surface needs to become a security priority.

Map All Internet-Exposed Assets

The first step is creating a comprehensive inventory of external facing systems like domains, networks, servers, services, cloud buckets, and applications. Traditional asset management tools only show internal assets, so specialized attack surface management platforms are required.

Attack surface analyzers like Pentest as a Service use combinations of active scans, crawling technology, and threat intelligence to build automated live maps of your exposed attack surface. This inventory becomes the foundation for ongoing monitoring.

Detect New or Misconfigured Assets

With an inventory established, attack surface monitoring can detect rogue exposures like domains registered without authorization, misconfigured cloud instances, or new ports opened by employees.

By alerting on any changes from the known good baseline, security teams can identify and mitigate emerging risks before attackers discover them. Integrate with IT workflows to automate remediation when deviations occur.

Assess Vulnerabilities Continuously

Map not just the presence of external assets but their security posture via continuous vulnerability scanning. Prioritize investigation for externally facing systems containing known vulnerabilities like unpatched servers.

Testing production assets typically requires using non-intrusive scanning techniques to avoid disruptions. Solutions like Randori and Intruder help find vulnerabilities in live environments safely.

Uncover Blind Spots Across Environments

Maintain comprehensive coverage across hybrid environments, from legacy network equipment to multiple cloud providers. Partnerships with security vendors like Microsoft and CrowdStrike bolster threat telemetry.

By correlating insights across internal and external data sources, you gain a unified view of cyber risk that spans environments. Eliminate blind spots that could be overlooked by siloed monitoring tools.

Quantify Changes in Cyber Risk

Analyze trends in your overall attack surface exposure to quantify whether cyber risk is increasing or decreasing over time. Factors like new domains, open ports, and detected exploits indicate heightened risk.

This empowers leadership discussions on risk using hard metrics versus subjective opinions. Make reducing attack surface exposure a tangible goal – for example, shrinking risk surface by 20%.

Continuous monitoring and mitigation of the external attack surface has become imperative as hybrid and cloud adoption expand organizational perimeters. Partner with our cybersecurity experts at DBGM to implement advanced attack surface management and harden your exterior defenses.

The advanced persistent threats facing organizations today have outpaced the capabilities of traditional security tools. These attacks utilize dynamic tactics, leverage zero-days, and needle-in-a-haystack anomalies that evade rules-based defenses.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning offer great promise to arm security teams with the sophisticated analytical capabilities needed to uncover today’s most dangerous threats. In this article, we’ll explore key use cases where AI can help transform security operations and threat detection.

Boosting SOC Analyst Productivity

A major pain point for modern SOCs is the overwhelming volume of alerts generated across the environment. Tired analysts struggle to pinpoint actual incidents amidst alerts flooding their dashboards every minute of every day. It’s difficult to spot the signals in all that noise.

AI-driven security analytics platforms leverage unsupervised learning algorithms to ingest huge volumes of security data from across domains. By discovering subtle but meaningful patterns and correlations, AI solutions can identify combinations indicative of emerging threats. This distills billions of data points down to a high-fidelity stream of priority incidents for analyst review.

platforms like Microsoft Azure Sentinel and Splunk apply this AI filtering to elevate the most critical threats from massive data lakes. Analyst productivity improves drastically when high-confidence alerts are automatically surfaced rather than getting buried in noise. AI becomes a SOC’s best friend.

Uncovering Stealthy Adversary Tradecraft

Today’s most dangerous threat groups like APTs and nation-state actors utilize advanced tradecraft to evade detection during campaigns. This includes techniques like “living off the land” using built-in system tools, slow crawling across networks, and blending-in amidst normal user behaviors.

Behavioral analytics powered by artificial intelligence are essential to recognizing these stealthy activities that specification-based defenses miss. By establishing profiles of normal behavior across users, devices, and systems, AI can detect anomalies indicative of emerging threats that humans would easily overlook.

User behavior analytics (UBA) solutions profile typical access patterns for users like time-of-day and peer groups. Machine learning algorithms identity outliers suggesting credential theft or insider threats. Network traffic analytics search for covert exfiltration in legitimate flows. Together, behavioral analytics expose threats trying to hide in plain sight.

Identifying Zero-Day Vulnerabilities

By definition, zero-day exploits take advantage of previously unknown software vulnerabilities. Without awareness of the vulnerability, defenses lack the signatures required to block attacks abusing these flaws. AI techniques offer hope for getting ahead of zero days.

Algorithms can be trained using vast databases of historical vulnerability data to discern patterns predictive of vulnerabilities in source code. AI evaluates code syntax and semantics to flag high-risk segments likely to be susceptible to memory corruption issues, injection flaws, or logical errors. AI-driven code reviews surface these trouble spots for remediation before releases.

On the defensive side, AI behavioral models recognize activity deviations indicative of possible zero-day attacks such as unusual registry or system file access. By flagging suspected zero-day activity, incident responders can contain intrusions stemming from as yet unknown vulnerabilities.

Scaling Threat Hunting Capabilities

Proactive threat hunting led by specialized security analysts is vital for preempting threats before they trigger alerts. But thorough hunting requires considerable time and expertise to pore through massive data sets seeking hidden red flags.

AI and machine learning help automate aspects of the hunting process to enable more extensive, rapid campaigns. Data science techniques identify relationships and anomalies that hunters can pivot off of to drive deeper investigations.

Tools like Deep Instinct accelerate hunting by allowing virtual assistants, chatbots, and automated queries to surface leads from across endpoints, networks, clouds, and applications. AI amplifies the productivity of expert hunters, allowing them to search faster and wider.

The Path Forward with AI

While AI shows enormous potential across these use cases, current solutions still have limitations. Algorithms require extensive training data that sufficiently represents the deploying organization’s environment and threat landscape. Models need continuous maintenance and tuning as new tactics evolve.

However, the machine learning journey starts with initial pilot projects focused on high-value challenges like phishing detection or insider threat discovery. Early successes demonstrate practical benefits, which builds trust in AI among stakeholders. A strategic roadmap accounts for incremental advances in capabilities, data science skills, and model explainability.

Over time, organizations expand AI deployments across core threat detection and response workflows. The future SOC platform will integrate AI engines applied across security telemetry feeds. Threats attempting to hide will eventually have nowhere to run or hide from persistent, multipronged AI.

Partnering with MSSPs and AI-focused security consultancies like DBGM accelerates success. Our data scientists and SOC experts help architect the foundations for an AI-enabled SOC, deliver pilot projects, and provide ongoing tuning of algorithms aligned to your environment. Contact DBGM today to chart your AI in security journey.

The shift to hybrid remote work has dramatically accelerated shadow IT adoption. With employees empowered to procure their own cloud services, organizations are losing visibility and control over data. In this guide, we’ll explore proactive strategies IT leaders can employ to get ahead of the shadow IT risk.

Discover Hidden SaaS Apps

Many organizations are oblivious to the scale of shadow IT across their environment. The first step is running SaaS discovery tools like Cloudlock, Netskope, and Microsoft Cloud App Security to unveil sanctioned apps, user accounts, and data volumes across each.

Discovery provides clarity on the current state and highlights high-risk apps driving non-compliant data exfiltration that must be addressed urgently. This insight informs the next steps.

Shift to IT-Sanctioned Alternatives

Rather than playing whack-a-mole trying to block every shadow app, provide IT-approved alternatives that enable the same user needs securely. For example, replace unchecked Dropbox usage with Microsoft OneDrive governed by data loss prevention policies.

Promote sanctioned apps through awareness campaigns, self-service access, and automated data migrations from high-risk shadow apps to guide users into the light.

Apply Unified Data Controls

For sanctioned apps, implement unified data loss prevention, encryption, visibility, and threat detection through cloud access security broker (CASB) platforms. Native CASB integration in Microsoft 365 provides protection for Microsoft and third-party apps.

Consistent data controls reduce risk while enabling collaboration across apps. With centralized policies, IT regains control without stifling business needs satisfied by shadow apps originally.

Simplify Procurement and Deployment

Empower employees to easily request and gain secure access to new apps through self-service IT catalogs. Automate fulfillment with user provisioning and single sign-on (SSO) to eliminate onboarding friction.

Fast deployment of sanctioned apps removes the incentive to seek shadow apps. Integrate request systems with change management workflows for necessary oversight by IT.

Continuously Monitor Usage

Apply automated usage analytics to detect shadow IT apps that may reemerge over time as employees try new solutions. For example, identify categories like messaging apps with disproportionate third-party usage compared to IT-approved tools.

Ongoing monitoring enables early detection so problematic apps can be replaced in a controlled manner before widespread adoption occurs.

With the right strategies, IT leaders can strike the balance between security and workforce productivity as hybrid work endures. Tackle this challenge head on by taking control with sanctioned apps. Contact DBGM to create your shadow IT management plan.

Even companies with extensive preventative security controls suffer breaches at times. Chaotic scrambling to respond after an incident finally triggers alerts results in costly delays and errors. By planning end-to-end response workflows in advance, organizations can react swiftly and effectively when crisis strikes.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll outline strategies and examples for developing incident response plans that equip teams to contain and eradicate threats under pressure. Well-prepared response frameworks reduce business impact and help polish reputations by demonstrating control during incidents.

Define Roles Across IT, Security, Legal, Communications

Successful response requires tightly orchestrated actions across functions from technical investigation to legal obligations and external PR. Clearly define responsibilities of personnel during incidents as part of the planning process.

For example, designate lead incident commander, technical containment leads for networks/endpoints, forensic investigation/log analysis roles, infrastructure recovery duties, a communications lead to interface with executives, PR and regulators, and a legal coordinator to address compliance issues.

Preparing RACI matrices that map out responsibilities, approvers, contributors, and informed stakeholders for different response plan aspects ensures proper cross-functional coordination.

Construct Playbooks for Critical Scenarios

While every incident has unique attributes, many follow common patterns like ransomware attacks, insider data theft, or domain admin credential compromise. Develop tailored playbooks covering technical/ communications steps for addressing major incident scenarios based on risk assessments.

Response playbooks codify best practices specific to each threat type, reducing guesswork when under the gun. They specify containment steps like isolating compromised segments, suggested forensic tools and key artifact collection priorities, eradication steps like resetting credentials and removing malware, and communications templates to use for status updates and notifications.

Automate key aspects of response

Remove manual effort during incidents by having automated capabilities ready for activation. Ensure access to emergency credential rotation to quickly replace compromised admin accounts. Automate system isolation through preconfigured software-defined network policies. Collect forensic artifacts rapidly using automated threat hunting queries. The more that can be executed with a single click, the better.

Maintain Always-Ready Incident Infrastructure

Recurring maintenance ensures an always deployment-ready incident management infrastructure that avoids availability delays during crises. Check that approved forensic tools have current licenses. Validate access to the offline crypto wallet needed for ransomware demands. Cycle out expired SSL certificates on critical portals. Keep infrastructure primed.

Test via Realistic Simulations

Tabletop exercises only reveal so much compared to full-scale incident simulations. Schedule red team attacks, live ransomware detonations on test segments, and scenario runthroughs with external breach coaches. Use simulations to pressure test detection, validate containment steps work, refine runbooks, and identify capability gaps to address. There is no substitute for practice under simulated duress.

Capture Lessons Learned for Future Improvement

After simulations and actual incidents, conduct thorough debriefs focused on what enhancements would improve future response capabilities and outcomes. Analyze which actions were effective or troublesome in order to strengthen plans. Factor lessons learned back into the response framework continuously.

Secure Buy-in Across the Organization

Review response protocols with legal, communications, and business leaders periodically to secure buy-in and feedback across the organization. Shop floor managers to PR teams must align around planned protocols applied during incidents rather than questioning unfamiliar actions mid-crisis.

Following the strategies above enables assembling and maintaining the incident response plan your organization needs before an emergency strikes. Partnering with experienced response consultants ensures you develop not just documents but battle-tested processes. Contact DBGM today to review your current preparedness and start strengthening response capabilities before it’s too late.