Top 8 security and risk management trends

1. Cybersecurity mesh

Deploying controls where they are most needed is essential for cybersecurity mesh, a modern security approach that enables tools to interoperate by providing foundational security services and centralized policy management and orchestration, rather than security tools running in a silo. A cybersecurity mesh architecture allows organizations to extend security controls to distributed assets, especially valuable now, since many IT assets now operate outside the traditional enterprise perimeter.

Our Solution:  E-Suite is a collection of five services (E-Visor, E-Cryptor, E-Vigilant, and E-Inspector) that we have developed here at Synergy to help you discover, audit, and govern your most sensitive information and resources.  Our E-Suite services build on top of Microsoft services, significantly expanding, and integrating with, the powerful identity and security features built into Microsoft 365.  We designed the E-Suite based on our years of designing and implementing Microsoft Security, Compliance, Identity and productivity workloads for all size organizations.

2. Identity-first security

The ideal had been access for any user, anytime, and from anywhere (a.k.a. “identity as the new security perimeter”). Technical and cultural shifts and a current majority remote workforce during COVID-19 rendered remote access essential. “Identity-first security puts identity at the center of security design and demands a major shift from traditional LAN edge design thinking,” the Gartner report said.

According to Peter Firstbrook, Gartner Research VP, “The SolarWinds attack demonstrated that we’re not doing a great job of managing and monitoring identities,”. Additionally “While a lot of money and time has been spent on multi-factor authentication, single sign-on and biometric authentication, very little has been spent on effective monitoring of authentication to spot attacks against this infrastructure.” Firstbrook said.

Our Solution: E-Vigilant provides proactive notifications based on a predefined workflow. Any risky sign-in sends alerts with actions to take such as “Change your password” to both the user and their manager. Any other custom workflow can be set.
E-Visor for Teams App brings to end-user Advanced Analytics of How, When, Where their sign-in occurred.
E-Visor for M365 provides to the company administrators a complete sign-in analytical map of each employee.

3. Security support for remote work is here to stay

According to the 2021 Gartner CIO Agenda Survey, 64% of employees are able to work remotely. Gartner surveys indicate that at least 30 to 40% will continue to work from home post-COVID-19.

This shift can require many offices to undertake a total reboot of policies and security tools. As an example, Firstbrook said that endpoint protection services will need to move to cloud-delivered services. There also needs to be a review of existing policies for data protection, disaster recovery and backup to ensure everything will function for a remote staff.

Our Solution: E-Visor Teams App, featuring My devices view helps today’s remote work/Bring your Own Device (BYOD) flexibility. Organizations are implementing device health validation, a security check which can be performed while the user is trying to use applications or data, from not only different locations, but also devices. Our E-Visor Teams App has this section to share with you an all-in-one view

E-Cryptor integrates with Microsoft Information Protection (MIP, formerly Azure IP) to augment your encryption policies to enable advanced and exception data governance scenarios. 

E-Inspector scans data at rest to audit, discover, and secure sensitive information from a centralized data repository. 

4. Cyber-savvy boards of directors

Directors rated cybersecurity the second-highest source of risk after regulatory compliance in the Gartner 2021 Board of Directors Survey. Gartner sees more enterprises creating a board-level dedicated cybersecurity committee helmed by a board member whose background has been in security or as a consultant.

By 2025, 40% of boards of directors will have a dedicated cybersecurity committee overseen by a qualified board member, up from less than 10% today, Gartner predicted.

Our Solution: E-Visor Teams App focused on the end user so we can help organizations #DemocratizeDataAccess, surfacing critical identity information. Every user is involved in the security of the organization

5. Security vendor consolidation

Gartner found that 78% of CISOs have 16 or more tools in their cybersecurity vendor portfolios; 12% have 46 or more in the 2020 CISO Effectiveness Survey. Having many security products can increase complexity, integration costs and staffing requirements.

“CISOs are keen to consolidate the number of security products and vendors they must deal with,” Firstbrook said. “Having fewer security solutions can make it easier to properly configure them and respond to alerts, improving your security risk posture. However, buying a broader platform can have downsides in terms of cost and the time it takes to implement.”

Our Solution: E-Suite is transversal analytics, alerts, privacy and security real-world solution, based on more than 10 years of solving real clients problems, providing a consistent experience in each service. Our E-Suite is the most powerful solution available, encompassing data governance, identity, capturing data from over 160 sources, simplifying the identification and investigation of problems and alerts in the organization.

6. Privacy-enhancing computation

Look for privacy-enhancing computation techniques that protect in-use data (as opposed to while it’s at rest or in motion), which enables secure data processing, sharing, cross-border transfers and analytics, even in untrusted environments. Implementations are on the rise in fraud analysis, intelligence, data sharing, financial services (e.g. anti-money laundering), pharmaceuticals and healthcare.

By 2025, 50% of large organizations will adopt privacy-enhancing computation for processing data in untrusted environments or multiparty data analytics use cases, Gartner predicted.

Our Solution: E-Cryptor secures the document collaboration process from start to end not allowing manual exceptions that can compromise the information. Establishing a more efficient life cycle

7. Breach and attack simulation

Breach and attack simulation tools provide continuous defensive posture assessments, and challenge limited visibility from annual point assessments like penetration testing. When CISOs include BAS as a part of their regular security assessments, teams can identify security posture gaps more effectively and better prioritize security initiatives.

Our Solution: E-Vigilant  proactive notifications alert you in several scenarios of security attacks to predefined users and workflow

8. Managing machine identities

Machine identity management is when a machine interacts with other entities, such as devices, applications, cloud services or gateways. Increased numbers of nonhuman entities are now present in organizations, and this means managing machine identities is now a vital part of the security strategy.

Our Solution: E-Visor Teams App traces the health of your devices and provides you a detailed Analytics.
E-Vigilant notify you when a device abnormality is produced Analytics, notifications, required actions, and collaboration privacy is a transversal layer that protects you from top security risk for 2021.