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Organizations Should Revisit Their Cybersecurity Strategies

Cyber Defense begins with understanding your risks. The risk formula

is simple: Risks = Threats x Vulnerabilities x Assets or R = T x V x A.
You cannot quantify cyber risks when you are unaware of the threats to
your organization, the vulnerabilities in your network and computing

equipment and all of the devices allowed to come and go on your
network. More than 70% of organizations today have BYOD, or Bring
Your Own Device, policies that allow employees to use mobile devices
for both business and personal use. These devices are powerful
enough to support corporate applications - and advanced malware. IT Directors should have stringent

policies for personal devices being used for work applications to prevent attacks and data leakages.
An enterprise level command center or dashboard is the way ahead in administering policies and
rules.

Another major item left unnoticed and neglected are network maps. With increasing network

complexity and outdated network maps, security holes are inevitable. It is important to close all paths
to important and valuable data.

Multi-factor authentication techniques should be deployed to minimize the risk of intrusions and data
thefts. It is also the single best method to provide secure access to employees from remote locations
and also helps meet compliance requirements.

If you can quantify the risks to your organization (and start to include people – their devices, their
behavior, the data they are allowed to roam with), then you can begin to bolster your cyber defenses.
Take a closer look at this risk formula and start to find the weak spots. Start now before you are
exploited and the risk of a major attack causing massive damage will be circumvented because you

were one step ahead of the next threat. If an asset doesn't belong on your network, you should know
if you OWN the entire network topology map. If an asset has a vulnerability you should know
BEFORE it gets exploited. If there is a major threat exploiting that vulnerability you should bolster
defenses until you can patch or remediate. Know your risk formula and be proactive!

To our faithful readers, Enjoy

Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini, Editor-in-Chief, [email protected]

P.S. Congrats Olivia (USA) – this month’s contest winner!

3 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – August 2014 Edition
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