The days in which having just an Identity and Access Management (IAM) system on-premises are long gone. With organizations moving to hybrid on-premises, cloud, and even multi-cloud environments, the number of cyber-attacks is growing. The types and sophistication of these attacks are continually changing to get around any new security controls put in place. In fact, it is much easier for the cyber attacker to change tactics than it is for organizations to bring in new solutions to mitigate current attack vulnerabilities.
Organizations must realize that they will never be 100% secure, and there will always be attacks on their systems. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying to give up on continually assessing and updating an organization's security controls to block the latest and most significant attack vectors. But instead, take the next step and plan for the worst. Organizations should integrate their Business Continuity Management (BCM) with their cybersecurity initiatives. This means being able to detect, respond recover, and improve from any attack that potentially brings down their business.
Recently, Microsoft Azure announced its global availability of the Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD). WVD not only provides the ability to deploy and scale Azure-based virtualization of Windows 10 multi-session, Windows Server, and Windows 7 desktops, but it also provides something that is sometimes overlooked. WVD gives the enterprise the ability to recover from being compromised when attacked, at least from the desktop endpoint perspective. Through Microsoft's acquisition of FSLogix and its solutions, WVD takes advantage of virtualization & containerization technologies. Using these technologies, Microsoft ensures that its Windows desktops and servers can be powered up or restarted in a consistent and safe state with respect to user profiles and applications, adding to the BCM and “recover from an attack” capabilities business must implement today. FSLogix does this by bringing both profile and office containers to the table.
So, when reviewing cybersecurity and BCM strategies, organizations shouldn’t take the view of “if”, but “when” their systems will be compromised, and their data breached. Then ask themselves how they will recover.
KuppingerCole Principal Analyst Martin Kuppinger emphasized the changing role of the CISO recently in a blog and also covered that topic in a webinar on cybersecurity budgeting which you can watch below. To get a more hands-on approach, see below for our Incident Response Boot Camp at Cybersecurity Leadership Summit 2019.
