Cybercrime has evolved, and it’s not just about hackers looking to steal credit card information. Cybercriminals are now stealing data from corporations, government agencies, and private individuals to gain an advantage in business and politics.
To prevent cyber-attacks from succeeding, organizations should implement a layered approach that protects against threats both inside and outside their network perimeter. This blog post will discuss the importance of layered security in cyber defense with next-generation firewalls (NGFW) and virtual private networks (VPNs).
The 7 Security Layers
A layered approach to security is an awesome way to protect your organization and its data from cyber attacks. A layered approach means that you are using multiple types of technology that each focus on specific areas of security, as well as providing different methods of protection. The seven layers include:
- Antivirus (AV)
- Anti-malware (AM)
- Patch management
- Identity and access management (IAM)
- Two-factor authentication
- Continuous monitoring
The seven layers of cybersecurity protection are interrelated and should be used together to provide a strong security posture. Each layer has its purpose, so using them together is important instead of relying on just one technology or method. For example, you could have all seven layers in place, but if your firewall is old and not patched, it will not protect against the latest threats.
Reduce the number of potential attack vectors
The most important step in your security strategy is to understand what potential attack vectors exist and reduce the number of potential attack vectors as much as possible.
You can do this by using a layered approach to security like:
- Network-based defense (firewalls, intrusion prevention systems)
- Endpoint protection (antivirus software)
- Cloud-based protection (cloud access security broker)
- Data-centric protection (awareness of data, encryption)
- Identity and access management
Increase detection capabilities
- Increase the number of alerts
- Increase the amount of data being analyzed
- Increase the accuracy of alerts
- Improve the speed at which alerting is done
The first three are easy to do, but the fourth is not. The fact that you’re getting more data doesn’t mean that you can process it faster—it just means you have to store it somewhere. It would help if you had a way for your alerting system to quickly and easily search through all of this data so that it can be acted upon as quickly as possible.
Proactively respond to threats
- Use threat intelligence to identify threats: Threat intelligence is information gathered from multiple sources (such as open-source data and commercial and public sources) that describe the capabilities, activities, motivations, and plans of cyber adversaries. It can be used to proactively identify potential threats before they occur or reactively after an attack has occurred.
- Use machine learning to identify threats: Machine learning algorithms learn from past experiences and make predictions about future events based on those experiences. These algorithms are often used for detecting network intrusions because they can learn normal patterns of activity within a network and then detect anomalies (or deviations from these normal patterns).
- Use a threat response plan/team to respond to threats: A threat response plan or team helps organizations decide how best to respond to specific cybersecurity incidents based on their business needs and risk tolerance levels.
Decrease the chance of a breach going undetected
A more important aspect of layered security is that each layer serves as a “tripwire,” or an alarm that triggers when breached. A hacker will have to dig deeper into your network before they can get through all of the layers, making it less likely for them to access sensitive data without being detected by one of your many tripwires.
Suppose you have layered security, and one of your tripwires goes off. In that case, the person responsible for detecting threats in your organization will know exactly where in their network a breach has occurred and what type of attack was used so they can respond accordingly—whether by blocking traffic from the offender’s IP address or taking other action such as alerting law enforcement agencies.
Ensure continuous compliance with regulations that require multiple layers of security
We all know that compliance is important. If you don’t, it will be soon enough. It’s a prediction that by the end of 2022, companies will spend $1 trillion on cybersecurity—a 62% increase over 2017’s already expensive figures.
And while spending money on security has never been more necessary, doing so intelligently and effectively is a bit more complicated than simply pouring money into the pot and hoping for the best. In fact, with so many products on offer today—each with its unique set of features—it can be difficult to know where to start or what product suite is right for your company.
The first thing you’ll want to do is evaluate your current state: determine whether or not your current approach aligns with what’s required by law; if it doesn’t, then take steps toward compliance immediately!
Increased overall security posture and awareness
- Increased security posture and awareness: Layered security helps to increase the overall security posture of an organization by increasing the likelihood of detecting threats, responding to threats, and preventing breaches.
- Increased likelihood of detecting threats: By adding layers of security, you will be more likely to detect a threat in one layer before it gets to another. This increases your chances of stopping an attack early on, which is much cheaper than cleaning up afterward.
- Increased likelihood of responding appropriately: If your security team can identify an attack early on and respond quickly with little damage, then they are much more likely to be able to mitigate that attack completely before it becomes widespread or causes any major damage. When attacks become widespread, it can be difficult for companies either because their response time may be slower or because fewer resources are available for them (since most employees have been affected).
Conclusion
With the number of cyber threats increasing daily, organizations need to take measures to protect them from these attacks. Layered security is a strategy that will help guard against various types of cyber threats by using multiple methods like encryption and authentication. By going beyond basic protection measures and implementing multiple layers of defense, companies can reduce their risk of being attacked while also maintaining compliance with industry regulations such as PCI DSS or HIPAA HITECH Act requirements.
