The repeated warnings from CISA and the Biden Administration regarding the Russian cyber threat have put US agencies and businesses on high alert. They are expecting retaliatory cyberattacks from Russia in response to the Ukrainian aid package. The Biden Administration’s budget proposal for FY2023 emphasizes the importance of cybersecurity for the federal government. This increased funding is crucial during a time when there is interconnected risk between business applications and critical infrastructure. However, despite the guidance and budget increase, most private sector organizations will not see a direct increase in their IT budget or security staff. As a result, companies need to take immediate strategic actions using their existing resources to ensure the security of their business-critical applications. It is essential to prioritize the modernization of outdated technology stacks in order to mitigate the growing cybersecurity vulnerabilities and protect critical systems and applications from malicious cyber campaigns. This may require making difficult decisions regarding prioritization.
A key aspect of vulnerability management is the ability to prioritize. Simply identifying vulnerabilities and creating a list is not enough. Security teams need to have a complete understanding of the severity and potential business impact in order to make informed decisions on how to take action.
To determine which assets require the most urgent attention, enterprises should create or update a triage list. This list should include all assets across cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments. Once potential issues have been identified, organizations should provide a detailed explanation of the business impact and assign an associated risk score. With clear prioritization and assigned scores, security teams can develop step-by-step plans for remediation, simplifying the resolution process and making meaningful improvements to overall security.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are often the top priority when triaging assets due to their critical role in company operations. These systems handle essential procedures such as accounting, sales, and purchasing. The reliability and security of ERP systems and their data are crucial to an organization’s ability to function effectively. If cybercriminals were to breach this data, the consequences could be severe.
Unfortunately, many threat detection tools currently available do not cover these business-critical applications, creating a significant gap in CISOs’ security programs. It is now important for organizations to ensure that the cybersecurity solutions they adopt can provide threat detection and response for these essential applications. Security teams should be able to identify both internal and external threats in real-time and understand their potential impact, allowing them to respond quickly and effectively without the need for extensive manual review.
Given that organizations have limited time and resources, they need to make informed decisions on how to allocate their resources. They must determine which patches need to be applied urgently, what configuration changes are necessary, and how to conduct testing for safe operation. By utilizing automated tools that can assist security teams in avoiding the need for manual examination of all security configuration variables, organizations can free up resources for more strategic tasks and achieve continuous threat detection and response for their business-critical applications.
