Page 241 - Cyber Defense eMagazine September 2025

The reality is that we now must operate in a Zero-trust environment; but no organization can achieve full
data privacy protection unless they also protect their data at its source. This means securing data via
continuous encryption not just at rest or in transit. This is an open gap that needs to be addressed in
every organization.

5 Steps to Mitigate Risk and Put the Brakes on Data Breaches

Let’s face it: if perimeter-based security solutions were enough, we would not have daily data breaches.
The problem is that perimeter-based solutions always have vulnerabilities, and new ones are popping up
every day through system and vendor updates. It’s a moving target, and it’s quickly becoming impossible
to keep pace with the rate at which these vulnerabilities are being exploited.

So, the question becomes, what can CISOs, and CIOs do to better protect their data? Here are five
steps to take immediately:

1. Create and Regularly Test Incident Response Plans. CISOs and other technical leaders must
collaborate with executive leadership to simulate real-world scenarios to test response
capabilities, updated regularly to address evolving threats. Having a clear tested plan speeds
response time and minimizes damage when attacks occur. Develop detailed incident response
procedures, assign specific roles to team members, conduct regular tabletop exercises, and
ensure all employees are trained to recognize and report suspicious activities quickly.
2. Take a closer look at your data access policies. In most organizations, the IT staff is spread
thin, and administrators are expected to have expertise in a highly complex ecosystem of
hardware and software. The high stress workload of these teams often result in corner cutting,
such as unchecked access to all digital systems in the hands of an understaffed team who may
not have the correct skills, either technical or operational to have such unfettered access. The IT
function is often managed by the CFO or the COO, whose areas of expertise preclude them from
understanding what their IT staff does on a daily basis and the many operational risks and threat
vectors lurking in an area so many do not understand. Employees should be granted access only
to what they need to do their jobs.
3. Implement continuous monitoring. Up until recently, it’s been relatively easy for people to hide
nefarious activities within the noise of systemic network checks. But now, with AI being woven
into the fabric of the network, it’s becoming easier to detect anomalous access and behavior
patterns.
4. Embrace Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). Weak authentication mechanisms or poorly
managed access controls can lead to unauthorized access to critical systems and data. MFA
provides a foundational security layer that can dramatically reduce the risk of account
compromise. On its own it is not enough, but there are still many organizations who have yet to
implement this first step to good data protection.
5. Embrace Privacy Enhancing Technologies for continuous encryption. Data encryption is a
fundamental element of every viable enterprise cybersecurity strategy, but many executives are
operating under the misconception that their data is safe because they’ve implemented something
billed as “end-to-end” encryption. Unfortunately, most of these solutions only encrypt data while
it is at rest or in transit. Once the application is in use, the encryption at rest ceases to be of benefit

Cyber Defense eMagazine – September 2025 Edition 241
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