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The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) is set to transform how financial institutions across the European Union manage and... Network Security Navigating DORA: How to ensure your network security and compliance strategy is resilient Joseph Hallman 2 min read Joseph Hallman Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 12/19/24 Published The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) is set to transform how financial institutions across the European Union manage and mitigate ICT (Information and Communications Technology) risks. With the official compliance deadline in January 2025, organizations are under pressure to ensure their systems can withstand and recover from disruptions—an urgent priority in an increasingly digitized financial ecosystem. DORA introduces strict requirements for ICT risk management, incident reporting, and third-party oversight, aiming to bolster the operational resilience of financial firms. But what are the key deadlines and penalties, and how can organizations ensure they stay compliant? Key Timelines and Penalties Under DORA Compliance deadline: January 2025 – Financial firms and third-party ICT providers must have operational resilience frameworks in place by this deadline. Regular testing requirements – Companies will need to conduct resilience testing regularly, with critical institutions potentially facing enhanced testing requirements. Penalties for non-compliance – Fines for failing to comply with DORA’s mandates can be substantial. Non-compliance could lead to penalties of up to 2% of annual turnover, and repeated breaches could result in even higher sanctions or operational restrictions. Additionally, firms face reputational risks if they fail to meet incident reporting and recovery expectations. Long term effect- DORA increases senior management's responsibility for ICT risk oversight, driving stronger internal controls and accountability. Executives may face liability for failing to manage risks, reinforcing the focus on compliance and governance. These regulations create a dynamic challenge, as organizations not only need to meet the initial requirements by 2025, but also adapt to the changes as the standards continue to evolve over time. Firewall rule recertification The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) emphasizes the need for financial institutions in the EU to ensure operational resilience in the face of technological risks. While DORA does not explicitly mandate firewall rule recertification , several of its broader requirements apply to the management and oversight of firewall rules and the overall security infrastructure, which would include periodic firewall rule recertification as part of maintaining a robust security posture. A few of the key areas relevant to firewall rules and the necessity for frequent recertification are highlighted below. ICT Risk Management Framework- Article 6 requires financial institutions to implement a comprehensive ICT (Information and Communication Technology) risk management framework. This includes identifying, managing, and regularly testing security policies, which would encompass firewall rules as they are a critical part of network security. Regular rule recertification helps to ensure that firewall configurations are up-to-date and aligned with security policies. Detection Solutions- Article 10 mandates that financial entities must implement effective detection solutions to identify anomalies, incidents, and cyberattacks. These solutions are required to have multiple layers of control, including defined alert thresholds that trigger incident response processes. Regular testing of these detection mechanisms is also essential to ensure their effectiveness, underscoring the need for ongoing evaluations of firewall configurations and rules ICT Business Continuity Policy- Article 11 emphasizes the importance of establishing a comprehensive ICT business continuity policy. This policy should include strategic approaches to risk management, particularly focusing on the security of ICT third-party providers. The requirement for regular testing of ICT business continuity plans, as stipulated in Article 11(6), indirectly highlights the need for frequent recertification of firewall rules. Organizations must document and test their plans at least once a year, ensuring that security measures, including firewalls, are up-to-date and effective against current threats. Backup, Restoration, and Recovery- Article 12 outlines the procedures for backup, restoration, and recovery, necessitating that these processes are tested periodically. Entities must ensure that their backup and recovery systems are segregated and effective, further supporting the requirement for regular recertification of security measures like firewalls to protect backup systems against cyber threats. Crisis Communication Plans- Article 14 details the obligations regarding communication during incidents, emphasizing that organizations must have plans in place to manage and communicate risks related to the security of their networks. This includes ensuring that firewall configurations are current and aligned with incident response protocols, necessitating regular reviews and recertifications to adapt to new threats and changes in the operational environment. In summary, firewall rule recertification supports the broader DORA requirements for maintaining ICT security, managing risks, and ensuring network resilience through regular oversight and updates of critical security configurations. How AlgoSec helps meet regulatory requirements AlgoSec provides the tools, intelligence, and automation necessary to help organizations comply with DORA and other regulatory requirements while streamlining ongoing risk management and security operations. Here’s how: 1. Comprehensive network visibility AlgoSec offers full visibility into your network, including detailed insights into the application connectivity that each firewall rule supports. This application-centric approach allows you to easily identify security gaps or vulnerabilities that could lead to non-compliance. With AlgoSec, you can maintain continuous alignment with regulatory requirements like DORA by ensuring every firewall rule is tied to an active, relevant application. This helps ensure compliance with DORA's ICT risk management framework, including continuous identification and management of security policies (Article 6). Benefit : With this deep visibility, you remain audit-ready with minimal effort, eliminating manual tracking of firewall rules and reducing the risk of errors. 2. Automated risk and compliance reports AlgoSec automates compliance checks across multiple regulations, continuously analyzing your security policies for misconfigurations or risks that may violate regulatory requirements. This includes automated recertification of firewall rules, ensuring your organization stays compliant with frameworks like DORA's ICT Risk Management (Article 6). Benefit : AlgoSec saves your team significant time and reduces the likelihood of costly mistakes, while automatically generating audit-ready reports that simplify your compliance efforts. 3. Incident reporting and response DORA mandates rapid detection, reporting, and recovery during incidents. AlgoSec’s intelligent platform enhances incident detection and response by automatically identifying firewall rules that may be outdated or insecure and aligning security policies with incident response protocols. This helps ensure compliance with DORA's Detection Solutions (Article 10) and Crisis Communication Plans (Article 14). Benefit : By accelerating response times and ensuring up-to-date firewall configurations, AlgoSec helps you meet reporting deadlines and mitigate breaches before they escalate. 4. Firewall policy management AlgoSec simplifies firewall management by taking an application-centric approach to recertifying firewall rules. Instead of manually reviewing outdated rules, AlgoSec ties each firewall rule to the specific application it serves, allowing for quick identification of redundant or risky rules. This ensures compliance with DORA’s requirement for regular rule recertification in both ICT risk management and continuity planning (Articles 6 and 11). Benefit : Continuous optimization of security policies ensures that only necessary and secure rules are in place, reducing network risk and maintaining compliance. 5. Managing third-party risk DORA emphasizes the need to oversee third-party ICT providers as part of a broader risk management framework. AlgoSec integrates seamlessly with other security tools, providing unified visibility into third-party risks across your hybrid environment. With its automated recertification processes, AlgoSec ensures that security policies governing third-party access are regularly reviewed and aligned with business needs. Benefit : This proactive management of third-party risks helps prevent potential breaches and ensures compliance with DORA’s ICT Business Continuity requirements (Article 11). 6. Backup, Restoration, and Recovery AlgoSec helps secure backup and recovery systems by recertifying firewall rules that protect critical assets and applications. DORA’s Backup, Restoration, and Recovery (Article 12) requirements emphasize that security controls must be periodically tested. AlgoSec automates these tests, ensuring your firewall rules support secure, segregated backup systems. Benefit : Automated recertification prevents outdated or insecure rules from jeopardizing your backup processes, ensuring you meet regulatory demands. Stay ahead of compliance with AlgoSec Meeting evolving regulations like DORA requires more than a one-time adjustment—it demands a dynamic, proactive approach to security and compliance. AlgoSec’s application-centric platform is designed to evolve with your business, continuously aligning firewall rules with active applications and automating the process of policy recertification and compliance reporting. By automating key processes such as risk assessments, firewall rule management, and policy recertification, AlgoSec ensures that your organization is always prepared for audits. Continuous monitoring and real-time alerts keep your security posture compliant with DORA and other regulations, while automated reports simplify audit preparation—minimizing the time spent on compliance and reducing human error. With AlgoSec, businesses not only meet compliance regulations but also enhance operational efficiency, improve security, and maintain alignment with global standards. As DORA and other regulatory frameworks evolve, AlgoSec helps you ensure that compliance is an integral, seamless part of your operations. Read our latest whitepaper and watch a short video to learn more about our application-centric approach to firewall rule recertification Schedule a demo Related Articles Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 5 Multi-Cloud Environments Cloud Security Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Convergence didn’t fail, compliance did. Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

Eric Jeffery, AlgoSec’s regional solutions engineer, gives his view on the pivotal role of AppSec network engineers and how they can... Application Connectivity Management How AppSec Network Engineers Can Align Security with the Business Eric Jeffery 2 min read Eric Jeffery Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 7/13/22 Published Eric Jeffery, AlgoSec’s regional solutions engineer, gives his view on the pivotal role of AppSec network engineers and how they can positively impact the business It may surprise many people but the number one skills gap hampering today’s application security network engineers is primarily centred around the soft skills which includes communication, writing, presentation, team building and critical thinking. Why is this so important? Because first and foremost, their goal is to manage the organization’s security posture by deploying the best application security tools and technologies for the specific security and growth needs of the business. Keep things safe but don’t get in the way of revenue generation What an application security network engineer should not do is get in the way of developing new business-critical or revenue generating applications. At the same time, they need to understand that they have a leadership role to play in steering a safe and profitable course for the business. Starting with an in depth understanding of all wired traffic, AppSec network engineers need to know what applications are running on the network, how they communicate, who they communicate with and how to secure the traffic and connectivity flow associated with each one of them. An AppSec network engineer’s expertise should extend much more than mastering simple applications such as FTP and SSH. Rather, business traffic continuity should sit at the pinnacle of their responsibilities. There’s a lot of revenue generating traffic that they need to understand and put the right guardrails to protect it. However, equally as important, they need to make sure that the traffic is not hindered by outdated or irrelevant rules and policies, to avoid any negative financial impact on the organization. Layers of expertise beyond the OSI model A good starting point for any AppSec network engineer is to acquire a commanding knowledge of the seven layers of the OSI model, especially Layer 6 which covers Presentation. In practical terms, this means that they should have a thorough understanding of the network and transport layers – knowing what traffic is going across the network and why. It’s also helpful to have basic scripting knowledge and an understanding of simple scripts such as a cron job for scheduling tasks. It could also be useful to know some basic level programming like Perl and PHP. Beyond the network skills, AppSec network engineers should grasp the business vertical in which they operate. Once they gain an understanding of the business DNA and the applications that make it tick, then they can add real value to their organizations. What’s on the network vs. what should be on the network Should AppSec network engineers be expected to understand business and applications? Absolutely. With this level of skill and knowledge, they can help the business progress securely by corelating what is actually in the network environment versus what should be in the environment. Once they have clear understanding, they can clean up then environment and optimize network performance with enhanced security. This becomes more critical as organizations grow and develop, often allowing too much unnecessary traffic into the environment. Typically, this is how the scenario plays out: Applications are added or removed (decommissioned), or a new vendor or solution is brought on board and the firewall turns into a de facto router. The end result of such often leads to new vulnerabilities and too many unnecessary threat vectors. This is precisely where the aforementioned soft skills come in – an AppSec network engineer should be able to call out practices that don’t align with business goals. It’s also incumbent upon organizations to offer soft skills training to help their AppSec network engineers become more valuable to their teams. Need an application view to be effective in securing the business When firewalls become de facto routers, organizations end up relying on other areas for security. However, security needs to be aligned with the applications to prevent cyber attacks from getting onto the network and then from moving laterally across the network, should they manage to bypass the firewalls. All too often, east-west security is inadequate and therefore, AppSec network engineers need to look at network segmentation and application segmentation as part of a holistic network security strategy. The good news is that there are some great new technologies that can help with segmenting an internal network. The lesser good news is that there’s a danger in the thinking that by bolting on new tools, the problem will be solved. So often these tools are only partially deployed before the team moves onto the next “latest and the greatest” solution. When exploring new technologies, AppSec network engineers must ask themselves the following: Is there a matching use case for each solution? Will procurement of another tool lead to securing the environment or will it just be another useless “flavor of the month” tool? Irregardless, once the new technology solution is acquired, it is imperative to align the right skilful people with this technology to enable the organization to intelligently secure the whole environment before moving onto a new tool. To further hone this point, celebrating the introduction of a new firewall is superfluous if at the end of the day, it does not utilize the right rules and policies. Ushering some of these new technologies without proper deployment will only leave gaping holes and give organizations a false sense of security, exposing them to continuous risks. Don’t put the cloud native cart before the horse The role of an AppSec network engineer becomes even more critical when moving to the cloud. It starts with asking probing questions: What are the applications in the business and why are we moving them to the cloud? Is it for scalability, speed of access or to update a legacy system? Will the business benefit from the investment and the potential performance impact? It’s also important to consider the architecture in the cloud: Is it containerized, public cloud, private cloud or hybrid? Once you get definitive answers to these questions, create reference architectures and get senior level buy-in. Finally, think about the order in which the enterprise migrates applications to the cloud and maybe start with some non-critical applications that only affect a small number of locations or people before risking moving critical revenue generating applications. Don’t put the cart before the horse. DevSecOps: We should be working together; you can be sure the criminals are… Network application security is complicated enough without introducing internal squabbles over resources or sacrificing security for speed. Security teams and development teams need to work together and focus on what is best for your business. Again, this where the soft skills like teamwork, communications and project management come into play. The bottom line is this: Understand bad actors and prepare for the worst. The bad guys are just chomping at the bit, waiting for your organizations to make the next mistake. To beat them, DevSecOps teams must leverage all the resources they have available. Future promise or false sense of security? There are some exciting new technologies to look forward to in the horizon to help secure the application environment. Areas like quantum computing, machine learning, AI and blockchain show great promise in outfoxing the cyber criminals in the healthcare and financial services industries. It is expected that the AppSec network engineer will play a vital role in the viability of these new technologies. Yet, the right technology will still need to be applied to the right use case correctly and then fully deployed to in order see any effective results. The takeaway So much of the role of the AppSec network engineer is about taking a cold hard look at the goals of the business and asking some challenging questions. It all starts with “what’s right for the business?” rather than “what’s the latest technology we can get our hands on?” To be an effective AppSec network engineer, individuals should not only know the corporate network inside out, but they also must have an overall grasp of applications and the applicable business cases they support. Furthermore, collaboration with developers and operations (DevOps) becomes an agent for rapid deployment of revenue generating or mission critical applications. But it still goes back to the soft skills. To protect the business from taking needless security risks and demand a seat at the decision-making table, AppSec network engineers need to apply strong leadership, project management and communications skills To learn more on the importance of AppSec network engineers to your organization’s cybersecurity team, watch the following video Schedule a demo Related Articles Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 5 Multi-Cloud Environments Cloud Security Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Convergence didn’t fail, compliance did. Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

Top 5 misconfigurations to avoid for robust security Multi-cloud environments have become the backbone of modern enterprise IT, offering... Cloud Security 5 Multi-Cloud Environments Iris Stein 2 min read Iris Stein Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 6/23/25 Published Top 5 misconfigurations to avoid for robust security Multi-cloud environments have become the backbone of modern enterprise IT, offering unparalleled flexibility, scalability, and access to a diverse array of innovative services. This distributed architecture empowers organizations to avoid vendor lock-in, optimize costs, and leverage specialized functionalities from different providers. However, this very strength introduces a significant challenge: increased complexity in security management. The diverse security models, APIs, and configuration nuances of each cloud provider, when combined, create a fertile ground for misconfigurations. A single oversight can cascade into severe security vulnerabilities, lead to compliance violations, and even result in costly downtime and reputational damage. At AlgoSec, we have extensive experience in navigating the intricacies of multi-cloud security. Our observations reveal recurring patterns of misconfigurations that undermine even the most well-intentioned security strategies. To help you fortify your multi-cloud defences, we've compiled the top five multi-cloud misconfigurations that organizations absolutely must avoid. 1. Over-permissive policies: The gateway to unauthorized access One of the most pervasive and dangerous misconfigurations is the granting of overly broad or permissive access policies. In the rush to deploy applications or enable collaboration, it's common for organizations to assign excessive permissions to users, services, or applications. This "everyone can do everything" approach creates a vast attack surface, making it alarmingly easy for unauthorized individuals or compromised credentials to gain access to sensitive resources across your various cloud environments. The principle of least privilege (PoLP) is paramount here. Every user, application, and service should only be granted the minimum necessary permissions to perform its intended function. This includes granular control over network access, data manipulation, and resource management. Regularly review and audit your Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies across all your cloud providers. Tools that offer centralized visibility into entitlements and highlight deviations can be invaluable in identifying and rectifying these critical vulnerabilities before they are exploited. 2. Inadequate network segmentation: Lateral movement made easy In a multi-cloud environment, a flat network architecture is an open invitation for attackers. Without proper network segmentation, a breach in one part of your cloud infrastructure can easily lead to lateral movement across your entire environment. Mixing production, development, and sensitive data workloads within the same network segment significantly increases the risk of an attacker pivoting from a less secure development environment to a critical production database. Effective network segmentation involves logically isolating different environments, applications, and data sets. This can be achieved through Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs), subnets, security groups, network access control lists (NACLs), and micro-segmentation techniques. The goal is to create granular perimeters around critical assets, limiting the blast radius of any potential breach. By restricting traffic flows between different segments and enforcing strict ingress and egress rules, you can significantly hinder an attacker's ability to move freely within your cloud estate. 3. Unsecured storage buckets: A goldmine for data breaches Cloud storage services, such as Amazon S3, Azure Blob Storage, and Google Cloud Storage, offer incredible scalability and accessibility. However, their misconfiguration remains a leading cause of data breaches. Publicly accessible storage buckets, often configured inadvertently, expose vast amounts of sensitive data to the internet. This includes customer information, proprietary code, intellectual property, and even internal credentials. It is imperative to always double-check and regularly audit the access controls and encryption settings of all your storage buckets across every cloud provider. Implement strong bucket policies, restrict public access by default, and enforce encryption at rest and in transit. Consider using multifactor authentication for access to storage, and leverage tools that continuously monitor for publicly exposed buckets and alert you to any misconfigurations. Regular data classification and tagging can also help in identifying and prioritizing the protection of highly sensitive data stored in the cloud. 4. Lack of centralized visibility: Flying blind in a complex landscape Managing security in a multi-cloud environment without a unified, centralized view of your security posture is akin to flying blind. The disparate dashboards, logs, and security tools provided by individual cloud providers make it incredibly challenging to gain a holistic understanding of your security landscape. This fragmented visibility makes it nearly impossible to identify widespread misconfigurations, enforce consistent security policies across different clouds, and respond effectively and swiftly to emerging threats. A centralized security management platform is crucial for multi-cloud environments. Such a platform should provide comprehensive discovery of all your cloud assets, enable continuous risk assessment, and offer unified policy management across your entire multi-cloud estate. This centralized view allows security teams to identify inconsistencies, track changes, and ensure that security policies are applied uniformly, regardless of the underlying cloud provider. Without this overarching perspective, organizations are perpetually playing catch-up, reacting to incidents rather than proactively preventing them. 5. Neglecting Shadow IT: The unseen security gaps Shadow IT refers to unsanctioned cloud deployments, applications, or services that are used within an organization without the knowledge or approval of the IT or security departments. While seemingly innocuous, shadow IT can introduce significant and often unmanaged security gaps. These unauthorized resources often lack proper security configurations, patching, and monitoring, making them easy targets for attackers. To mitigate the risks of shadow IT, organizations need robust discovery mechanisms that can identify all cloud resources, whether sanctioned or not. Once discovered, these resources must be brought under proper security governance, including regular monitoring, configuration management, and adherence to organizational security policies. Implementing cloud access security brokers (CASBs) and network traffic analysis tools can help in identifying and gaining control over shadow IT instances. Educating employees about the risks of unauthorized cloud usage is also a vital step in fostering a more secure multi-cloud environment. Proactive management with AlgoSec Cloud Enterprise Navigating the complex and ever-evolving multi-cloud landscape demands more than just awareness of these pitfalls; it requires deep visibility and proactive management. This is precisely where AlgoSec Cloud Enterprise excels. Our solution provides comprehensive discovery of all your cloud assets across various providers, offering a unified view of your entire multi-cloud estate. It enables continuous risk assessment by identifying misconfigurations, policy violations, and potential vulnerabilities. Furthermore, AlgoSec Cloud Enterprise empowers automated policy enforcement, ensuring consistent security postures and helping you eliminate misconfigurations before they can be exploited. By providing this robust framework for security management, AlgoSec helps organizations maintain a strong and resilient security posture in their multi-cloud journey. Stay secure out there! The multi-cloud journey offers immense opportunities, but only with diligent attention to security and proactive management can you truly unlock its full potential while safeguarding your critical assets. Schedule a demo Related Articles Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 5 Multi-Cloud Environments Cloud Security Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Convergence didn’t fail, compliance did. Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

Avishai Wool, CTO and co-founder of AlgoSec, looks at how organizations can implement and manage SDN-enabled micro-segmentation... Micro-segmentation Building a Blueprint for a Successful Micro-segmentation Implementation Prof. Avishai Wool 2 min read Prof. Avishai Wool Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 6/22/20 Published Avishai Wool, CTO and co-founder of AlgoSec, looks at how organizations can implement and manage SDN-enabled micro-segmentation strategies Micro-segmentation is regarded as one of the most effective methods to reduce an organization’s attack surface, and a lack of it has often been cited as a contributing factor in some of the largest data breaches and ransomware attacks. One of the key reasons why enterprises have been slow to embrace it is because it can be complex and costly to implement – especially in traditional on-premise networks and data centers. In these, creating internal zones usually means installing extra firewalls, changing routing, and even adding cabling to police the traffic flows between zones, and having to manage the additional filtering policies manually. However, as many organizations are moving to virtualized data centers using Software-Defined Networking (SDN), some of these cost and complexity barriers are lifted. In SDN-based data centers the networking fabric has built-in filtering capabilities, making internal network segmentation much more accessible without having to add new hardware. SDN’s flexibility enables advanced, granular zoning: In principle, data center networks can be divided into hundreds, or even thousands, of microsegments. This offers levels of security that would previously have been impossible – or at least prohibitively expensive – to implement in traditional data centers. However, capitalizing on the potential of micro-segmentation in virtualized data centers does not eliminate all the challenges. It still requires the organization to deploy a filtering policy that the micro-segmented fabric will enforce, and writing this a policy is the first, and largest, hurdle that must be cleared. The requirements from a micro-segmentation policy A correct micro-segmentation filtering policy has three high-level requirements: It allows all business traffic – The last thing you want is to write a micro-segmented policy and have it block necessary business communication, causing applications to stop functioning. It allows nothing else – By default, all other traffic should be denied. It is future-proof – ‘More of the same’ changes in the network environment shouldn’t break rules. If you write your policies too narrowly, when something in the network changes, such as a new server or application, something will stop working. Write with scalability in mind. A micro-segmentation blueprint Now that you know what you are aiming for, how can you actually achieve it? First of all, your organization needs to know what your traffic flows are – what is the traffic that should be allowed. To get this information, you can perform a ‘discovery’ process. Only once you have this information, can you then establish where to place the borders between the microsegments in the data center and how to devise and manage the security policies for each of the segments in their network environment. I welcome you to download AlgoSec’s new eBook , where we explain in detail how to implement and manage micro-segmentation. AlgoSec Enables Micro-segmentation The AlgoSec Security Management Suite (ASMS) employs the power of automation to make it easy to define and enforce your micro-segmentation strategy inside the data center, ensure that it does not block critical business services, and meet compliance requirements. AlgoSec supports micro-segmentation by: Providing application discovery based on netflow information Identifying unprotected network flows that do not cross any firewall and are not filtered for an application Automatically identifying changes that will violate the micro-segmentation strategy Automatically implementing network security changes Automatically validating changes The bottom line is that implementing an effective network micro-segmentation strategy is now possible. It requires careful planning and implementation, but when carried out following a proper blueprint and with the automation capabilities of the AlgoSec Security Management Suite, it provides you with stronger security without sacrificing any business agility. Find out more about how micro-segmentation can help you boost your security posture, or request your personal demo . Schedule a demo Related Articles Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 5 Multi-Cloud Environments Cloud Security Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Convergence didn’t fail, compliance did. Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

The Web application and service business loves containers, but they present a security challenge. Prevasio has the skills and experience... Cloud Security Don’t Neglect Runtime Container Security Rony Moshkovich 2 min read Rony Moshkovich Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 9/21/20 Published The Web application and service business loves containers, but they present a security challenge. Prevasio has the skills and experience to meet the challenge. Its runtime scanning technology and techniques will let you avoid the serious risks of vulnerable or compromised containers. The very thing that makes Docker containers convenient — their all-in-one, self-contained structure — makes them opaque to traditional security tests. Instances come and go as needed, sometimes deleting themselves within seconds. This scalable and transient nature isn’t amenable to the usual tools. Prevasio’s approach is specifically designed to analyze and test containers safely, finding any problems before they turn into security incidents. The container supply chain Container images put together code from many sources. They include original source or binary code, application libraries,language support, and configuration data. The developer puts them all together and delivers the resulting image. A complex container has a long supply chain,and many things can go wrong. Each item in the image could carry a risk. The container developer could use buggy or outdated components, or it could use them improperly. The files it imports could be compromised. A Docker image isn’t a straightforward collection of files, like a gzip file. An image may be derived from another image. Extracting all its files and parameters is possible but not straightforward. Vulnerabilities and malicious actions We can divide container risks into two categories: vulnerabilities and malicious code. Vulnerabilities A vulnerability unintentionally introduces risk. An outsider can exploit them to steal information or inflict damage. In a container, they can result from poor-quality or outdated components. The building process for a complex image is hard to keep up to date. There are many ways for something to go wrong. Vulnerability scanners don’t generally work on container images. They can’t find all the components. It’s necessary to check an active container to get adequate insight. This is risky if it’s done in a production environment. Container vulnerabilities include configuration weaknesses as well as problems in code. An image that uses a weak password or unnecessarily exposes administrative functions is open to attacks. Malicious code Malware in a container is more dangerous than vulnerabilities. It could intrude at any point in the supply chain. The developer might receive a compromised version of a runtime library. A few unscrupulous developers put backdoors into code that they ship. Sometimes they add backdoors for testing purposes and forget to remove them from the finished product. The only way to catch malware in a container is by its behavior. Monitoring the network and checking the file system for suspicious changes will discover misbehaving code. The Prevasio solution Security tools designed for statically loaded code aren’t very helpful with containers. Prevasio has created a new approach that analyzes containers without making any assumptions about their safety. It loads them into a sandboxed environment where they can’t do any harm and analyzes them.The analysis includes the following: Scanning of components for known vulnerabilities Automated pen-test attacks Behavioral analysis of running code Traffic analysis to discover suspicious data packets Machine learning to identify malicious binaries The analysis categorizes an image as benign,vulnerable, exploitable, dangerous, or harmful. The administrator looks at agraph to identify any problems visually, without digging through logs. They can tell at a glance whether an image is reasonably safe to run, needs to be sent back for fixes, or should be discarded on the spot. If you look at competing container security solutions, you’ll find that the key is runtime technology. Static analysis, vulnerability scans, and signature checking won’t get you enough protection by themselves. Prevasio gives you the most complete and effective checking of container images, helping you to avoid threats to your data and your business. Schedule a demo Related Articles Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 5 Multi-Cloud Environments Cloud Security Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Convergence didn’t fail, compliance did. Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

Assessing the Value of Network Segmentation from a Business Application Perspective Download PDF Schedule time with one of our experts Schedule time with one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Continue

Infrastructure as code: Connectivity risk analysis Datasheet Download PDF Schedule time with one of our experts Schedule time with one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Continue

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For your organization to implement robust security policies, it must have clear information on the security risks it is exposed to. An... Uncategorized How to Perform a Network Security Risk Assessment in 6 Steps Tsippi Dach 2 min read Tsippi Dach Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 1/18/24 Published For your organization to implement robust security policies, it must have clear information on the security risks it is exposed to. An effective IT security plan must take the organization’s unique set of systems and technologies into account. This helps security professionals decide where to deploy limited resources for improving security processes. Cybersecurity risk assessments provide clear, actionable data about the quality and success of the organization’s current security measures. They offer insight into the potential impact of security threats across the entire organization, giving security leaders the information they need to manage risk more effectively. Conducting a comprehensive cyber risk assessment can help you improve your organization’s security posture, address security-related production bottlenecks in business operations, and make sure security team budgets are wisely spent. This kind of assessment is also a vital step in the compliance process . Organizations must undergo information security risk assessments in order to meet regulatory requirements set by different authorities and frameworks, including: The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) What is a Security Risk Assessment? Your organization’s security risk assessment is a formal document that identifies, evaluates, and prioritizes cyber threats according to their potential impact on business operations. Categorizing threats this way allows cybersecurity leaders to manage the risk level associated with them in a proactive, strategic way. The assessment provides valuable data about vulnerabilities in business systems and the likelihood of cyber attacks against those systems. It also provides context into mitigation strategies for identified risks, which helps security leaders make informed decisions during the risk management process. For example, a security risk assessment may find that the organization needs to be more reliant on its firewalls and access control solutions . If a threat actor uses phishing or social engineering to bypass these defenses (or take control of them entirely), the entire organization could suffer a catastrophic data breach. In this case, the assessment may recommend investing in penetration testing and advanced incident response capabilities. Organizations that neglect to invest in network security risk assessments won’t know their weaknesses until after they are actively exploited. By the time hackers launch a ransomware attack, it’s too late to consider whether your antivirus systems are properly configured against malware. Who Should Perform Your Organization’s Cyber Risk Assessment? A dedicated internal team should take ownership over the risk assessment process . The process will require technical personnel with a deep understanding of the organization’s IT infrastructure. Executive stakeholders should also be involved because they understand how information flows in the context of the organization’s business logic, and can provide broad insight into its risk management strategy . Small businesses may not have the resources necessary to conduct a comprehensive risk analysis internally. While a variety of assessment tools and solutions are available on the market, partnering with a reputable managed security service provider is the best way to ensure an accurate outcome. Adhering to a consistent methodology is vital, and experienced vulnerability assessment professionals ensure the best results. How to Conduct a Network Security Risk Assessment 1. Develop a comprehensive asset map The first step is accurately mapping out your organization’s network assets. If you don’t have a clear idea of exactly what systems, tools, and applications the organization uses, you won’t be able to manage the risks associated with them. Keep in mind that human user accounts should be counted as assets as well. The Verizon 2023 Data Breach Investigation Report shows that the human element is involved in more than a quarter of all data breaches. The better you understand your organization’s human users and their privilege profiles, the more effectively you can protect them from potential threats and secure critical assets effectively. Ideally, all of your organization’s users should be assigned and managed through a centralized system. For Windows-based networks, Active Directory is usually the solution that comes to mind. Your organization may have a different system in place if it uses a different operating system. Also, don’t forget about information assets like trade secrets and intellectual property. Cybercriminals may target these assets in order to extort the organization. Your asset map should show you exactly where these critical assets are stored, and provide context into which users have permission to access them. Log and track every single asset in a central database that you can quickly access and easily update. Assign security value to each asset as you go and categorize them by access level . Here’s an example of how you might want to structure that categorization: Public data. This is data you’ve intentionally made available to the public. It includes web page content, marketing brochures, and any other information of no consequence in a data breach scenario. Confidential data. This data is not publicly available. If the organization shares it with third parties, it is only under a non-disclosure agreement. Sensitive technical or financial information may end up in this category. Internal use only. This term refers to data that is not allowed outside the company, even under non-disclosure terms. It might include employee pay structures, long-term strategy documents, or product research data. Intellectual property. Any trade secrets, issued patents, or copyrighted assets are intellectual property. The value of the organization depends in some way on this information remaining confidential. Compliance restricted data. This category includes any data that is protected by regulatory or legal obligations. For a HIPAA-compliant organization, that would include patient data, medical histories, and protected personal information. This database will be one of the most important security assessment tools you use throughout the next seven steps. 2. Identify security threats and vulnerabilities Once you have a comprehensive asset inventory, you can begin identifying risks and vulnerabilities for each asset. There are many different types of tests and risk assessment tools you can use for this step. Automating the process whenever possible is highly recommended, since it may otherwise become a lengthy and time-consuming manual task. Vulnerability scanning tools can automatically assess your network and applications for vulnerabilities associated with known threats. The scan’s results will tell you exactly what kinds of threats your information systems are susceptible to, and provide some information about how you can remediate them. Be aware that these scans can only determine your vulnerability to known threats. They won’t detect insider threats , zero-day vulnerabilities and some scanners may overlook security tool misconfigurations that attackers can take advantage of. You may also wish to conduct a security gap analysis. This will provide you with comprehensive information about how your current security program compares to an established standard like CMMC or PCI DSS. This won’t help protect against zero-day threats, but it can uncover information security management problems and misconfigurations that would otherwise go unnoticed. To take this step to the next level, you can conduct penetration testing against the systems and assets your organization uses. This will validate vulnerability scan and gap analysis data while potentially uncovering unknown vulnerabilities in the process. Pentesting replicates real attacks on your systems, providing deep insight into just how feasible those attacks may be from a threat actor’s perspective. When assessing the different risks your organization faces, try to answer the following questions: What is the most likely business outcome associated with this risk? Will the impact of this risk include permanent damage, like destroyed data? Would your organization be subject to fines for compliance violations associated with this risk? Could your organization face additional legal liabilities if someone exploited this risk? 3. Prioritize risks according to severity and likelihood Once you’ve conducted vulnerability scans and assessed the different risks that could impact your organization, you will be left with a long list of potential threats. This list will include more risks and hazards than you could possibly address all at once. The next step is to go through the list and prioritize each risk according to its potential impact and how likely it is to happen. If you implemented penetration testing in the previous step, you should have precise data on how likely certain attacks are to take place. Your team will tell you how many steps they took to compromise confidential data, which authentication systems they had to bypass, and what other security functionalities they disabled. Every additional step reduces the likelihood of a cybercriminal carrying out the attack successfully. If you do not implement penetration testing, you will have to conduct an audit to assess the likelihood of attackers exploiting your organization’s vulnerabilities. Industry-wide threat intelligence data can give you an idea of how frequent certain types of attacks are. During this step, you’ll have to balance the likelihood of exploitation with the severity of the potential impact for each risk. This will require research into the remediation costs associated with many cyberattacks. Remediation costs should include business impact – such as downtime, legal liabilities, and reputational damage – as well as the cost of paying employees to carry out remediation tasks. Assigning internal IT employees to remediation tasks implies the opportunity cost of diverting them from their usual responsibilities. The more completely you assess these costs, the more accurate your assessment will be. 4. Develop security controls in response to risks Now that you have a comprehensive overview of the risks your organization is exposed to, you can begin developing security controls to address them. These controls should provide visibility and functionality to your security processes, allowing you to prevent attackers from exploiting your information systems and detect them when they make an attempt. There are three main types of security control available to the typical organization: Physical controls prevent unauthorized access to sensitive locations and hardware assets. Security cameras, door locks, and live guards all contribute to physical security. These controls prevent external attacks from taking place on premises. Administrative controls are policies, practices, and workflows that secure business assets and provide visibility into workplace processes. These are vital for protecting against credential-based attacks and malicious insiders. Technical controls include purpose-built security tools like hardware firewalls, encrypted data storage solutions, and antivirus software. Depending on their configuration, these controls can address almost any type of threat. These categories have further sub-categories that describe how the control interacts with the threat it is protecting against. Most controls protect against more than one type of risk, and many controls will protect against different risks in different ways. Here are some of the functions of different controls that you should keep in mind: Detection-based controls trigger alerts when they discover unauthorized activity happening on the network. Intrusion detection systems (IDS) and security information and event management (SIEM) platforms are examples of detection-based solutions. When you configure one of these systems to detect a known risk, you are implementing a detection-based technical control. Prevention-based controls block unauthorized activity from taking place altogether. Authentication protocols and firewall rules are common examples of prevention-based security controls. When you update your organization’s password policy, you are implementing a prevention-based administrative control. Correction and compensation-based controls focus on remediating the effects of cyberattacks once they occur. Disaster recovery systems and business continuity solutions are examples. When you copy a backup database to an on-premises server, you are establishing physical compensation-based controls that will help you recover from potential threats. 5. Document the results and create a remediation plan Once you’ve assessed your organization’s exposure to different risks and developed security controls to address those risks, you are ready to condense them into a cohesive remediation plan . You will use the data you’ve gathered so far to justify the recommendations you make, so it’s a good idea to present that data visually. Consider creating a risk matrix to show how individual risks compare to one another based on their severity and likelihood. High-impact risks that have a high likelihood of occurring should draw more time and attention than risks that are either low-impact, unlikely, or both. Your remediation plan will document the steps that security teams will need to take when responding to each incident you describe. If multiple options exist for a particular vulnerability, you may add a cost/benefit analysis of multiple approaches. This should provide you with an accurate way to quantify the cost of certain cyberattacks and provide a comparative cost for implementing controls against that type of attack. Comparing the cost of remediation with the cost of implementing controls should show some obvious options for cybersecurity investment. It’s easy to make the case for securing against high-severity, high-likelihood attacks with high remediation costs and low control costs. Implementing security patches is an example of this kind of security control that costs very little but provides a great deal of value in this context. Depending on your organization’s security risk profile, you may uncover other opportunities to improve security quickly. You will probably also find opportunities that are more difficult or expensive to carry out. You will have to pitch these opportunities to stakeholders and make the case for their approval. 6. Implement recommendations and evaluate the effectiveness of your assessment Once you have approval to implement your recommendations, it’s time for action. Your security team can now assign each item in the remediation plan to the team member responsible and oversee their completion. Be sure to allow a realistic time frame for each step in the process to be completed – especially if your team is not actively executing every task on its own. You should also include steps for monitoring the effectiveness of their efforts and documenting the changes they make to your security posture. This will provide you with key performance metrics that you can compare with future network security assessments moving forward, and help you demonstrate the value of your remediation efforts overall. Once you have implemented the recommendations, you can monitor and optimize the performance of your information systems to ensure your security posture adapts to new threats as they emerge. Risk assessments are not static processes, and you should be prepared to conduct internal audits and simulate the impact of configuration changes on your current deployment. You may wish to repeat your risk evaluation and gap analysis step to find out how much your organization’s security posture has changed. You can use automated tools like AlgoSec to conduct configuration simulations and optimize the way your network responds to new and emerging threats. Investing time and energy into these tasks now will lessen the burden of your next network security risk assessment and make it easier for you to gain approval for the recommendations you make in the future. Schedule a demo Related Articles Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 5 Multi-Cloud Environments Cloud Security Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Convergence didn’t fail, compliance did. Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

Enterprise cybersecurity must constantly evolve to meet the threat posed by new malware variants and increasingly sophisticated hacker... Uncategorized Network Security vs. Application Security: The Complete Guide Tsippi Dach 2 min read Tsippi Dach Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 1/25/24 Published Enterprise cybersecurity must constantly evolve to meet the threat posed by new malware variants and increasingly sophisticated hacker tactics, techniques, and procedures. This need drives the way security professionals categorize different technologies and approaches. The difference between network security and application security is an excellent example. These two components of the enterprise IT environment must be treated separately in any modern cybersecurity framework. This is because they operate on different levels of the network and they are exposed to different types of threats and security issues. To understand why, we need to cover what each category includes and how they contribute to an organization’s overall information security posture. IT leaders and professionals can use this information to their organization’s security posture, boost performance, and improve event outcomes. What is Network Security? Network security focuses on protecting assets located within the network perimeter. These assets include data, devices, systems, and other facilities that enable the organization to pursue its interests — just about anything that has value to the organization can be an asset. This security model worked well in the past, when organizations had a clearly defined network perimeter. Since the attack surface was well understood, security professionals could deploy firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, and secure web gateways directly at the point of connection between the internal network and the public internet. Since most users, devices and applications were located on-site, security leaders had visibility and control over the entire network. This started to change when organizations shifted to cloud computing and remote work, supported by increasingly powerful mobile devices. Now most organizations do not have a clear network perimeter, so the castle-and-moat approach to network security is no longer effective. However, the network security approach isn’t obsolete. It is simply undergoing a process of change, adjusting to smaller, more segmented networks governed by Zero Trust principles and influenced by developments in application security. Key Concepts of Network Security Network security traditionally adopts a castle-and-moat approach, where all security controls exist at the network perimeter. Users who attempt to access the network must authenticate and verify themselves before being allowed to enter. Once they enter, they can freely move between assets, applications, and systems without the need to re-authenticate themselves. In modern, cloud-enabled networks, the approach is less like a castle and more like a university campus. There may be multiple different subnetworks working together, with different security controls based on the value of the assets under protection. In these environments, network security is just one part of a larger, multi-layered security deployment. This approach focuses on protecting IT infrastructure, like routers, firewalls, and network traffic. Each of these components has a unique role to play securing assets inside the network: Firewalls act as filters for network traffic , deciding what traffic is allowed to pass through and denying the rest. Well-configured firewall deployments don’t just protect internal assets from incoming traffic, they also protect against data from leaking outside the network as well. Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) are security tools that continuously monitor the network for malicious activity and take action to block unauthorized processes. They may search for known threat signatures, monitor for abnormal network activity, or enforce custom security policies. Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) encrypt traffic between networks and hide users’ IP addresses from the public internet. This is useful for maintaining operational security in a complex network environment because it prevents threat actors from intercepting data in transit. Access control tools allow security leaders to manage who is authorized to access data and resources on the network. Secure access control policies determine which users have permission to access sensitive assets, and the conditions under which that access might be revoked. Why is Network Security Important? Network security tools protect organizations against cyberattacks that target their network infrastructure, and prevent hackers from conducting lateral movement. Many modern network security solutions focus on providing deep visibility into network traffic, so that security teams can identify threat actors who have successfully breached the network perimeter and gained unauthorized access. Network Security Technologies and Strategies Firewalls : These tools guard the perimeters of network infrastructure. Firewalls filter incoming and outgoing traffic to prevent malicious activity. They also play an important role in establishing boundaries between network zones, allowing security teams to carefully monitor users who move between different parts of the network. These devices must be continuously monitored and periodically reconfigured to meet the organization’s changing security needs. VPNs : Secure remote access and IP address confidentiality is an important part of network security. VPNs ensure users do not leak IP data outside the network when connecting to external sources. They also allow remote users to access sensitive assets inside the network even when using unsecured connections, like public Wi-Fi. Zero Trust Models : Access control and network security tools provide validation for network endpoints, including IoT and mobile devices. This allows security teams to re-authenticate network users even when they have already verified their identities and quickly disconnect users who fail these authentication checks. What is Application Security? Application security addresses security threats to public-facing applications, including APIs. These threats may include security misconfigurations, known vulnerabilities, and threat actor exploits. Since these network assets have public-facing connections, they are technically part of the network perimeter — but they do not typically share the same characteristics as traditional network perimeter assets. Unlike network security, application security extends to the development and engineering process that produces individual apps. It governs many of the workflows that developers use when writing code for business contexts. One of the challenges to web application security is the fact that there is no clear and universal definition for what counts as an application. Most user-interactive tools and systems count, especially ones that can process data automatically through API access. However, the broad range of possibilities leads to an enormous number of potential security vulnerabilities and exposures, all of which must be accounted for. Several frameworks and methods exist for achieving this: The OWASP Top Ten is a cybersecurity awareness document that gives developers a broad overview of the most common application vulnerabilities . Organizations that adopt the document give software engineers clear guidance on the kinds of security controls they need to build into the development lifecycle. The Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) is a long list of software weaknesses known to lead to security issues. The CWE list is prioritized by severity, giving organizations a good starting point for improving application security. Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) codes contain extensive information on publicly disclosed security vulnerabilities, including application vulnerabilities. Every vulnerability has its own unique CVE code, which gives developers and security professionals the ability to clearly distinguish them from one another. Key Concepts of Application Security The main focus of application security is maintaining secure environments inside applications and their use cases. It is especially concerned with the security vulnerabilities that arise when web applications are made available for public use. When public internet users can interact with a web application directly, the security risks associated with that application rise significantly. As a result, developers must adopt security best practices into their workflows early in the development process. The core elements of application security include: Source code security, which describes a framework for ensuring the security of the source code that powers web-connected applications. Code reviews and security approvals are a vital part of this process, ensuring that vulnerable code does not get released to the public. Securing the application development lifecycle by creating secure coding guidelines, providing developers with the appropriate resources and training, and creating remediation service-level agreements (SLAs) for application security violations. Web application firewalls, which operate separately from traditional firewalls and exclusively protect public-facing web applications and APIs. Web application firewalls monitor and filter traffic to and from a web source, protecting web applications from security threats wherever they happen to be located. Why is Application Security Important? Application security plays a major role ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of sensitive data processed by applications. Since public-facing applications often collect and process end-user data, they make easy targets for opportunistic hackers. At the same time, robust application security controls must exist within applications to address security vulnerabilities when they emerge and prevent data breaches. Application Security Technologies Web Application Firewalls. These firewalls provide protection specific to web applications, preventing attackers from conducting SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and denial-of-service attacks, among others. These technical attacks can lead to application instability and leak sensitive information to attackers. Application Security Testing. This important step includes penetration testing, vulnerability scanning, and the use of CWE frameworks. Pentesters and application security teams work together to ensure public-facing web applications and APIs hold up against emerging threats and increasingly sophisticated attacks. App Development Security. Organizations need to incorporate security measures into their application development processes. DevOps security best practices include creating modular, containerized applications uniquely secured against threats regardless of future changes to the IT environment or device operating systems. Integrating Network and Application Security Network and application security are not mutually exclusive areas of expertise. They are two distinct parts of your organization’s overall security posture. Identifying areas where they overlap and finding solutions to common problems will help you optimize your organization’s security capabilities through a unified security approach. Overlapping Areas Network and application security solutions protect distinct areas of the enterprise IT environment, but they do overlap in certain areas. Security leaders should be aware of the risk of over-implementation, or deploying redundant security solutions that do not efficiently improve security outcomes. Security Solutions : Both areas use security tools like intrusion prevention systems, authentication, and encryption. Network security solutions may treat web applications as network entry points, but many hosted web applications are located outside the network perimeter. This makes it difficult to integrate the same tools, policies, and controls uniformly across web application toolsets. Cybersecurity Strategy : Your strategy is an integral part of your organization’s security program, guiding your response to different security threats. Security architects must configure network and application security solutions to work together in use case scenarios where one can meaningfully contribute to the other’s operations. Unique Challenges Successful technology implementations of any kind come with challenges, and security implementations are no different. Both application and network security deployments will present issues that security leaders must be prepared to address. Application security challenges include: Maintaining usability. End users will not appreciate security implementations that make apps harder to use. Security teams need to pay close attention to how new features impact user interfaces and workflows. Detecting vulnerabilities in code. Ensuring all code is 100% free of vulnerabilities is rarely feasible. Instead, organizations need to adopt a proactive approach to detecting vulnerabilities in code and maintaining source code security. Managing source code versioning. Implementing DevSecOps processes can make it hard for organizations to keep track of continuously deployed security updates and integrations. This may require investing in additional toolsets and versioning capabilities. Network security challenges include: Addressing network infrastructure misconfigurations. Many network risks stem from misconfigured firewalls and other security tools. One of the main challenges in network security is proactively identifying these misconfigurations and resolving them before they lead to security incidents. Monitoring network traffic efficiently. Monitoring network traffic can make extensive use of limited resources, leading to performance issues or driving up network-related costs. Security leaders must find ways to gain insight into security issues without raising costs beyond what the organization can afford. Managing network-based security risks effectively. Translating network activity insights into incident response playbooks is not always easy. Simply knowing that unauthorized activity might be happening is not enough. Security teams must also be equipped to address those risks and mitigate potential damage. Integrating Network and Application Security for Unified Protection A robust security posture must contain elements of both network and application security. Public-facing applications must be able to filter out malicious traffic and resist technical attacks, and security teams need comprehensive visibility into network activity and detecting insider threats . This is especially important in cloud-enabled hybrid environments. If your organization uses cloud computing through a variety of public and private cloud vendors, you will need to extend network visibility throughout the hybrid network. Maintaining cloud security requires a combination of network and web application security capable of producing results in a cost-effective way. Highly automated security platforms can help organizations implement proactive security measures that reduce the need to hire specialist internal talent for every configuration and policy change. Enterprise-ready cloud security solutions leverage automation and machine learning to reduce operating costs and improve security performance across the board. Unify Network and Application Security with AlgoSec No organization can adequately protect itself from a wide range of cyber threats without investing in both network and application security. Technology continues to evolve and threat actors will adapt their tactics to exploit new vulnerabilities as they are discovered. Integrating network and application security into a single, unified approach gives security teams the ability to create security policies and incident response plans that address real-world threats more effectively. Network visibility and streamlined change management are vital to achieving this goal. AlgoSec is a security policy management and application connectivity platform that provides in-depth information on both aspects of your security posture. Find out how AlgoSec can help you centralize policy and change management in your network. Schedule a demo Related Articles Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 5 Multi-Cloud Environments Cloud Security Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Convergence didn’t fail, compliance did. Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

The Case and Criteria for Application-Centric Security Policy Management Download PDF Schedule time with one of our experts Schedule time with one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Continue

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