Multiple IT environments are the norm for most businesses. The rapid transition from on-premises to cloud is growing, with the pandemic advancing online technology exponentially in the past 2 years. The ‘as a Service’ model has all the benefits of easy billing access to cyber security experts and the assurance of a maintained environment. For all this growth, Shared Responsibility is becoming a costly afterthought for this explosion of cloud adopters.
The Challenge
Organisations have expanded their IT environment outside the familiar confines of a local network and into the cloud. Shared Responsibility, in the context of the cloud, requires the cloud provider to ensure a fully working environment or service, however, it also requires the organisation to secure and protect the business data in that environment. For organisations not familiar with the cloud, it’s a very different terrain, and suddenly, you are not in Kansas anymore. The headache of maintaining your on-premises security solutions, have multiplied across your IT multiverse.
Cyber-attacks threaten every part of your IT multiverse. Individual business solutions are protected by many individual and disparate security solutions across endpoint, web, and email. Cloud business solutions often require cloud-specific security solutions to ensure secure configurations for valid user access.
Broadening your IT environment means broadening your attack surface. Every environment in the IT multiverse is fair game for cyber attackers and cyber threats. This pervasiveness of Ransomware, data breaches, and cyber exploitation is setting the tone for a broader security approach. One that takes back control across an IT multiverse…It’s time for MDR to provide peace of mind in securing your cloud investment and your organisation.
The solution
Managed Detection and Response (MDR) has been evolving in both name and function over the past number of years. It involves several solutions, which are supervised by an expert security team of analysts. Security Incident and Event Management (SIEM) tools play a large part in the overall MDR solution. A SIEM stores every aspect of your IT multiverse; devices, firewalls, users (remote and local), cloud, and everything in between.
Every MDR deployment is tailormade to an IT environment. It sets a baseline of normal behaviour, which makes it easier to spot any unusual or suspicious behaviour. A SIEM uses threat intelligence feeds and attacker frameworks, such as MITRE ATT&CK®, to recognise attacker behaviour and the various stages of an attack.
SIEM then rolls this information into one dashboard where alerts are prioritised and managed.
This is where the MDR magic happens… Alerts are actively reviewed by experienced security analysts and that are usually also threat hunters. Unusual or suspicious behaviour is flagged and investigated. No stone is left unturned. Threats are identified and neutralised using the response actions of Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR) functionality or by using other security point solutions to block or remove the threat.
Some of the benefits of CommSec’s MDR service?
• Visibility of your IT multiverse in a single portal
• A defined understanding of “normal” in your IT environment
• Trained Security Analysts reviewing threats and unusual behaviours
• Remediation of attacks
• Security improvement recommendations
• Full reporting and communication on all events
Peace of mind
Security is a necessary burden for all organisations. Prevention is better than cure, and there are many solutions to mitigate cyber risk. At CommSec, we always highlight the importance of basic security hygiene; effective access management, endpoint protection, network security, multi-factor authentication, encryption, patching, the 3-2-1 backup rule (There should be 3 copies of data, on 2 different media and with 1 copy being off site) etc. These all help to slow and stop cyber-attacks.
Further to this, MDR provides peace of mind in the event of an attack and puts the burden of responsibility in the hands of experts.
What to do next
At CommSec we provide an experienced team of security analysts within our Security Operations Centre (SOC). Our analysts work with MDR technology to proactively respond to security alerts in a customer’s IT environment. Customers are notified of top priority incidents and reports are presented on findings. The team focuses on precise remediation of alerts and provides continuous monitoring to hunt for potential threats and vulnerabilities.
MDR is essential and provides a holistic approach to security. CommSec offer a tailormade, low cost, high-value solution for your IT environment. Our SOC is also certified to international standards and gives a strong ROI for our customers.
Get in touch now via our website or using [email protected]
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