Be Proactive, CIOs Must Explore MDR
Leading organizations typically adopt a standard suite of security operations activities to fully leverage their features as industries shift towards a hybrid work environment. In this new landscape, CIOs face the critical task of protecting assets beyond their traditional boundaries. Yet, they consistently need help to stay ahead of swiftly evolving threats. The previous cyber-bracketology blog focused on detection/response and EDR. Now, we will look at proactive readiness and MDR.
Proactive Readiness
A proactive approach to cybersecurity is crucial, and merely having an incident response plan falls short of preparedness. Technology leaders must ensure that their organizations devise and regularly test and review these plans. Testing and routine cybersecurity plan review provide comprehensive coverage of necessary steps and clear role understanding for each team member.
CIOs and CISOs must initiate the incident response plan as the first step toward proactive readiness. This involves establishing a continuous cycle that responds to the constantly evolving landscape of threats, risks, and vulnerabilities. CIOs and CISOs must adopt a structured approach that matches the organization's maturity level and goals, mainly focusing on preparing for specific threats like ransomware. This phase is crucial for transitioning from a reactive to a proactive cybersecurity stance, emphasizing the importance of preemptive measures.
Conducting mock tabletop exercises, ideally with assistance from a neutral third party, is an essential exercise for proactive readiness. This approach helps uncover issues and refine the plan. By adopting a proactive mindset, an organization can enhance its ability to manage cybersecurity incidents effectively, thereby reducing potential damage, downtime, and financial losses.
MDR
CIOs and CISOs face the challenge of securing security talent while managing 24x7 operations. The benefits of MDR include staff skilled and experienced in threat monitoring, detection, and hunting, threat intelligence, and incident response, engage daily with customer data.
MDR services empower organizations to detect, analyze, investigate, and respond to threats by containing them. Service providers offer a comprehensive, turnkey solution featuring a predefined technology stack that includes endpoint, network, logs, and cloud coverage, ready to use out of the box or customizable with customer-provided technologies.
This solution comes with predefined, optimized processes and detection content, including a standard playbook of workflows, procedures, analytics, and the essential telemetry needed for effective service delivery. It also allows integration with third-party detection and response technologies, extending beyond the organization's tools.
MDR resources are available on demand to deliver immediate remote responses to threats, such as quarantining hosts and investigating suspicious users. They move beyond simple alerts and notifications. They handle the triage, investigation, and management of all threats, regardless of their priority or the volume of incidents, ensuring thorough discovery and investigation processes.
In conclusion, organizations aim to advance their security operations but often encounter resource constraints, a lack of strategic vision that leads to decision-making paralysis, or the burden of an overworked and underperforming capability. Adopting a proactive mindset and integrating third-party services like MDR can empower CIOs and CISOs to manage today's rapidly evolving threat landscape effectively.
Take look at the Secureworks cyber braketology and their 2023 state of the threat report.
