The advancement of technology makes cyber infrastructure more difficult to secure. Criminals and good guys alike leverage technologies like Artificial intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to speed up and automate processes. Overall, all the emphasis is placed on reacting to incidents as they happen. But is reactive security only enough?
Treating the cause instead of the symptoms.
I daresay the cause of all security incidents is human error. It could be in-production errors like bugs or vulnerabilities in source codes or Use errors like port misconfigurations or unpatched vulnerabilities. Ermetic reports that 80% of companies that suffered a cloud data breach in 2019 had misconfigurations to blame.
Since breaches are invariably caused by errors, wouldn't it be wiser to put more emphasis on proactive security, that is, detecting such errors before they're detected by threat actors who will ruthlessly capitalize on them at any given opportunity? And given that humans will never be beyond errors; how can we ensure that we find these errors before threat actors do?
Cloud Security Posture Management
CSPM is both a practice and a technology.
CSPM as practice
Every industry operates according to specific security standards set to reduce the risks associated with that industry to an acceptable level. Noncompliance to these standards by a business, amongst other things, may potentially lead to serious security breaches that may have disastrous consequences for the entity, its customers, and its partners.
As a practice, CSPM embodies proactive security. It aims to ensure compliance with security standards, which translates to identifying and mitigating risks before they become vulnerabilities and security incidents.
CSPM as a technology.
This is a tool that automates the practice of CSPM. It is designed to continuously monitor the security posture of an organization's cloud infrastructure while providing visibility into them.
Advantages of CSPM.
It provides visibility.
It is not unusual for an organization to own several services across different cloud providers to meet their needs. This sort of distribution creates a siloed view of each cloud service, making it difficult for the organization to view its cloud infrastructure as an entity.
\CSPM solves this by uniting all your cloud platforms into a single dashboard, with continuous real-time visibility, which simplifies the decision-making process.
Automation of risk remediation.
Humans are as likely to miss certain loopholes in their security postures as they're to create those loopholes; CSPM will not.
\It automates the process of risk identification and remediation, once your security posture is defined. This saves your security team precious time to invest in other areas of your security.
A Case for Integration of XDR with CSPM.
\Reactive security alone has become insufficient in resolving all prevalent cybersecurity issues. While it is good to have a system that responds to threats in real time, it is even better to have one that identifies your risk areas and vulnerability before they become threats and incidents.
\Investing in a CSPM solution for cloud loophole remediation, takes most of such responsibility from your developers, thereby ensuring that errors due to human involvement are avoided; while still providing a unified picture of all cloud assets, across multi-cloud environments.
\However, investing in CSPM with an XDR solution already in place will go a step further to give organizations a more wholesome security picture. Armed with visibility into its entire cloud environment as it relates to risks and a comprehensive view of its entire ecosystem; an organization becomes both proactive and reactive at any given time, and in any situation.
Benefits of Integrating XDR with CSPM
- Visibility into both risks and threats.
- More efficient and secure application deployment.
- Automation of risk and threat remediation.
In a Nutshell.
Human error, whether intentional or unintentional, will continue to be the springboard for security breaches, and you can be sure that threat actors are counting on it (praying for it even). By investing in a CSPM solution, organizations can automate the spotting of these errors before they result in a breach.
However, investing in CSPM in addition to an XDR solution affords organizations the chance to take preventive measures while still being able to react to threats in real-time, ensuring an approach that is both proactive and reactive.