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Enhance your organization's security with Mesh Security, ensuring a Zero Trust Posture Management (ZTPM) )approach and robust Identity Security Posture Management.

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Enhance your organization’s security with Mesh Security, ensuring a Zero Trust Posture Management (ZTPM) )approach and robust Identity Security Posture Management.

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Curious about what is ITDR? Get insights and solutions at Mesh Security. Learn about Identity Threat Detection and Response and discover effective strategies to detect and respond to identity threats.

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Mind The Gap
In the rapidly evolving distributed digital landscape, organizations face increasing challenges in safeguarding their valuable assets against identity-centric cyber threats. The frequency and sophistication of data breaches that exploit credible identities have rendered traditional prevention, detection, and response measures insufficient. This is where Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) comes into play.

ITDR, or Identity Threat Detection and Response, is a vital security practice designed to detect, mitigate, and respond to various identity-related risks. These risks include compromised user accounts, unauthorized access, data breaches, misuse of credentials, and fraudulent activities. Safeguarding against these threats is crucial for organizations to protect their sensitive information and maintain a secure environment.

In this blog post, we will explore the significance of ITDR in safeguarding against breaches and how it can bridge the gap between the Security Operations Center (SOC) and Identity and Access Management (IAM) controls and teams.

Gartner Identifies Top Security and Risk Management Trends Understanding the Need for ITDR
The cybersecurity landscape is evolving rapidly, with attackers becoming more sophisticated and identity-focused in their methods. Recent identity-centric cyberattacks on Okta, Uber, Cisco, and many more, have highlighted the vulnerability of identity infrastructure and the exploitation of identity systems. While prevention measures such as Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and different IAM systems are essential, they are empirically not foolproof. This underscores the need for a comprehensive contextual approach that includes detection and response.
The Rise of Identity-Centric Threats Hackers don't hack in, they log in.
Statistics indicate that approximately 80% of attacks involve the misuse of credentials, underscoring the critical role of identity systems in breaches. Attackers exploit weak identity and access management points to gain unauthorized access, execute lateral movement, escalate privileges, and exfiltrate or encrypt data. Organizations must recognize that either the reactive SOC approach or prevention alone is insufficient and shift toward identity-centric detection and response.

Additionally, threat actors are leveraging AI and other modern tools to enhance their identity-centric campaigns and exploit unsuspecting targets. Talos Intelligence provides valuable insights into how AI-powered techniques, such as natural language processing and generative models, enable attackers to craft sophisticated and personalized phishing emails. These techniques allow them to bypass traditional email filters and increase the chances of success in deceiving users. Current detection controls are vulnerable to AI-Powered threat actors to evade detection by blending in with normal user behavior patterns, manipulating the traditional security measures to identify malicious activity.
Bridging the Gap
SOC teams have traditionally focused on network, endpoint, and application security, while IAM professionals have emphasized identity and access prevention measures like Authentication (AuthN) and Authorization (AuthZ). However, as organizations move towards an identity-centric security strategy, these two disciplines must be compatible and work cohesively to address emerging challenges. Bridging this gap is crucial for modern security.

To counter the evolving threats, organizations must augment their security strategies with Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) practices. By harnessing the power of AI and machine learning, ITDR solutions can analyze user behavior, detect anomalous patterns, and swiftly respond to identity-related threats. This proactive approach is crucial in staying one step ahead of threat actors who exploit weak identity and access management points. It allows organizations to bridge the gap between prevention and response, fortifying their defenses and safeguarding against the growing sophistication of identity-centric attacks.
Embracing ITDR as One of the Core Pillars of Identity-First Security
ITDR is a discipline that encompasses various tools, threat intelligence, processes, and best practices. While prevention tools like Identity Governance and Administration (IGA), Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM), MFA, and Privileged Access Management (PAM) are instrumental, they can't guarantee complete protection. Organizations must understand that prevention alone is insufficient and invest in robust ITDR strategies to effectively detect and respond to threats. ITDR requires a holistic approach that combines various elements to create a comprehensive defense.
Why ITDR? I already have XDR and EDR
In the realm of cybersecurity, organizations adopt a comprehensive defense strategy by combining ITDR, XDR, and EDR solutions. In fact, ITDR is the newest security practice aiming to compensate for the inadequacies of traditional XDR and EDR approaches.

ITDR, or Identity Threat Detection and Response, focuses on detecting and responding to identity-related risks like compromised accounts and unauthorized access. It complements XDR's broader approach of integrating security data from multiple sources, including endpoints, networks, and the cloud. Meanwhile, EDR specializes in monitoring and analyzing endpoint devices for malicious activity.

By leveraging the strengths of ITDR, organizations can finally bridge the gap between IAM and SOC teams that operates the XDR and EDR systems. That will empower organizations to gain a multi-layered defense against cyber threats.

To conclude - ITDR addresses identity-centric risks, XDR provides a multi-layer view of the organization's security posture, and EDR offers insights into threats originating from endpoints. Together, these solutions can enhance the organization's ability to detect, respond, and mitigate sophisticated attacks across various fronts.

Building an Effective ITDR Framework
Establishing a comprehensive ITDR framework involves prioritizing detection mechanisms and response strategies. Detection can be based on Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTP), User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA), or both. While each approach has strengths and weaknesses, UEBA provides a proactive means of identifying suspicious behavior. Additionally, organizations must develop threat playbooks to guide their response to identity breaches, including immediate actions such as traffic isolation, step-up authentication, and quarantine of compromised accounts. Every effective ITDR framework should comply with the 3 C's: Continuous, Consistent, and Contextual. These are the main pillars of such a program:

1. Holistic & Contextual Visibility: An effective ITDR solution aggregates data from multiple sources, utilizing identity analytics, machine learning, behavioral analysis, and anomaly detection for threat analysis and quick identification.

2. Automation: The ITDR system should automate responses, such as blocking access to compromised accounts, alerting security personnel, and initiating investigations to mitigate identity-based threats.

3. Risk-based control: Prioritizing alerts based on the risk level is crucial to avoid alert fatigue and ensure a timely response. To streamline incident management, the ITDR solution should identify false positives and classify threats based on attack patterns.

Mitigating Challenges in MFA
While Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is a crucial defense against unauthorized access, attackers have devised techniques like prompt bombing to exploit MFA systems. Prompt bombing involves bombarding employees with One-Time Password (OTP) text messages, causing fatigue and increasing the likelihood of falling victim to an attack. Organizations should invest in MFA tools resistant to phishing attempts and incorporate compensatory controls to mitigate this risk. These controls may include device location verification, session invitations, and consecutive attempt detection.
ITDR as an Essential Component of Your Zero Trust Architecture
Organizations must adopt a Zero Trust mindset, assuming a breach rather than relying solely on prevention. By acknowledging that attackers may find their way in, organizations can focus on making their work more challenging. This approach requires effective collaboration between SOC and IAM teams, leveraging the expertise of both to identify and respond to threats promptly. The SOC team can provide in-depth analysis and pinpoint potential threats within the identity perimeter, while the IAM team can contribute their knowledge of identity systems to enhance threat detection. By strengthening collaboration, organizations can better protect their digital environments.
Conclusion
In today's cybersecurity landscape, organizations must prioritize security detection and response aspects alongside prevention measures. Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) is crucial in bridging the gap between the SOC and IAM teams, ensuring a comprehensive approach to safeguarding sensitive data and mitigating breaches. By embracing ITDR as a discipline and implementing robust detection mechanisms, organizations can proactively identify threats within the identity infrastructure and respond swiftly to contain and mitigate the impact of breaches.

Remember, prevention is essential, but detection and response are equally crucial in the battle against cyber threats. Mesh Security is the world's first Zero Trust Posture Management (ZTPM) solution that helps organizations drive contextual and comprehensive prevention, detection, and response, including ITDR and ISPM (Identity Security Posture Management), strengthening compatibility between controls and collaboration across teams to create a safer digital landscape for modern enterprises. By combining prevention, detection, and response strategies, Mesh can empower your organization with an enhanced and agile Zero Trust posture that dynamically adapts to your business.

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What is ITDR | Identity Threat Detection and Response

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Curious about what is ITDR? Get insights and solutions at Mesh Security. Learn about Identity Threat Detection and Response and discover effective strategies to detect and respond to identity threats.

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The MGM Hack - Protect your digital assets with Mesh Security against potential MGM Hack threats. Your shield against the unexpected.

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Don't Gamble On Your Identities
In this era of advanced cyber threats, no organization is invulnerable, regardless of its size or reputation. The cyberattack on MGM Casino serves as a stark reminder of the evolving and intricate threats. It emphasizes the urge to shift to an identity-first security approach and the imperative for tools like ISPM (Identity Security Posture Management) and ITDR (Identity Threat Detection and Response) to address modern cyber challenges adequately.
A Synopsis of the Incident

1. Onset: On September 11, 2023, MGM Resorts detected a notable "cybersecurity issue," triggering a widespread shutdown.

2. Business Impact: MGM faced operational challenges-digital access keys became redundant, slot machines halted, and digital platforms went silent. Guests reverted to traditional room keys amidst tedious check-ins. Despite the chaos, MGM's communications vaguely alluded to a 'cybersecurity issue'.

3. Threat Actor: The Scattered Spider group, known for their "Vishing" (Voice Phishing) tactics, was identified as the culprit.

4. Methodology of the Attack: Attackers targeted an MGM employee on LinkedIn and, through impersonation, deceived the MGM IT helpdesk into providing system credentials. The malefactors claimed their entry point was MGM's Okta platform, specifically the Okta Agent.

5. Ransomware & Demands: The ALPHV (or BlackCat) ransomware was activated. The attack, initially on slot machines, eventually encompassed data theft and encryption, with a ransom demand in cryptocurrency.

6. Counternarratives: The group conceded their involvement but contested specific details about their methods and objectives. They later unveiled their expertise in breaching MGM's Okta systems and password sniffing. David Bradbury, Okta's chief security officer, affirmed the role of social engineering in the MGM breach, pointing out the culprits' successful incorporation of their identity provider (IdP) and user database into the Okta system. Previous advisories from Okta about potential social engineering attacks underscore the urgency of previous advisories from Okta about potential social engineering attacks underscore the importance of rigorous employee training and proactive threat awareness.

Actionable Insights
The rise in cyber breaches targeting identities means that notorious threat actors like Cozy Bear (CrowdStrike 2023 report), Scattered Spider, and more now focus on the identity layer, employing phishing, vishing, and MFA Bypass tactics. Consequently, adopting identity-centric security solutions, like ISPM and ITDR, has become inevitable.

1. Identity Security Posture Management - Drive consistent and proactive prevention with Mesh ISPM. It holistically augments identity security, focusing on prevention and risk reduction around your identity fabric.

2. Identity Threat Detection & Response: Embrace the power of continuous, risk-based behavior detection with Mesh ITDR. This innovative tool stands as a sentinel, consistently monitoring identity activities in real time. Its primary role is to ensure the rapid detection of threats and facilitate swift responses, making it an indispensable element in modern cybersecurity strategies.

3. Reinvent your IAM Program: As "identity is the new perimeter," strengthening Identity and Access Management frameworks is crucial.

1. Old Boundaries: Conventional firewalls, although essential, are becoming outdated in today's digital landscape that requires advanced defensive mechanisms.

2. Adaptive Frameworks: Modern security solutions should be consistent, continuous, and context-aware. New strategies should be as adaptable as the human immune system, with Mesh ITDR exemplifying this approach.

4. Education: Regularly educate staff about voice phishing and ensure independent verification of unfamiliar requests.

5. Regular Assessments and Updates: Ensure security protocols align with the evolving threat environment.

6. Foster Cybersecurity Culture: Cultivate a setting where everyone acknowledges their role in cybersecurity. Being aware of current threats and reporting suspicious activities promptly is vital.

Why CISOs Need Zero Trust Against Ransomware
The increasing complexity of cyberattacks has led security professionals to advocate for a Zero Trust approach, especially in light of incidents like the MGM breach.

This incident accentuates the importance of an identity-driven security approach. Marrying identity-focused micro-segmentation with real-time behavior tracking can substantially mitigate potential damages. Zero trust, while not a cure-all, is a resilient cybersecurity approach.

Thus, the primary key takeaway is to operationalize Zero Trust holistically:

1. Explicit verification: Every digital interaction or transaction should be explicitly verified.

2. Least Privilege: Adopt a restricted access model.

3. Assume Breach: Work under the assumption that any identity or system might be compromised.

UNC3944's Web of Intrigue: From Credential Theft to Ransomware Dominance

1. Group Evolution & Background:

UNC3944's (AKA Scattered Spider) shift from merely stealing credentials to the actual deployment of ransomware.

The group's evolution indicates that its targeted industries will continue to grow, including areas like retail, media, entertainment, and financial services.

The group was known by several other names, including Scatter Swine and 0ktapus, and started deploying ransomware in the middle of the year.

UNC3944 is believed to have members in Western countries, including the U.S. and U.K.

2. Tactics & Tools:

They make use of texts and phone calls to help desks to reset passwords or gain MFA bypass codes.

Their strategy includes using legitimate software like remote access tools and searching through internal files to escalate privileges.

They attack through unmanaged virtual machines and target business-critical systems when deploying ransomware.

The group has at least three phishing kits associated with it and operates in underground communities to augment its operations.

They have targeted cloud environments, including Microsoft's Azure and AWS.

3. Association with BlackCat:
UNC3944 has recently collaborated with the BlackCat/AlphV ransomware operation, believed to be a successor of the Russia-linked REvil group.

4. Specific Details about the Attacks:

There seems to be some discrepancy about which attacks UNC3944 was involved in, specifically regarding MGM and Caesars.

BlackCat claimed an affiliate was responsible for the MGM Resorts hack and mentioned the encryption of more than 100 ESXi hypervisors.

Details about MGM shutting down IT operations, affecting digital key cards, credit cards, and ATMs.

Information on Caesars' SEC filing, where the attack happened after a social engineering scam on an outsourced IT support vendor.

5. Group's Future:

UNC3944 is expected to grow and diversify its monetization strategies. It may leverage underground communities for operations support.

The persistent threat of the sophisticated phishing campaigns UNC3944 uses and the increasing need for security awareness and system protection.

Phishers' continuous attempts to find delivery paths and the inevitability of some users following the malicious links.

Conclusion
The MGM cyberattack offers invaluable lessons in the ever-evolving landscape of cyber threats.

The risk of identity breaches is escalating. As the adage "identity is the new perimeter" becomes more prevalent, enhancing Identity and Access Management (IAM) systems is imperative. ISPM and ITDR are reshaping how organizations tackle cybersecurity. With a thorough understanding of identity-related posture and incidents, security teams can counter even the most sophisticated cyber threats effectively.

Organizations need to be alert, adaptable, and preemptive to stay ahead. Adopting advanced identity-centric strategies and cultivating a proactive, cybersecurity-conscious culture can make a significant difference. The revelations from the MGM incident, especially those concerning Okta, emphasize the indispensability of a comprehensive security approach. In cybersecurity, gambling with identities is a risk we cannot afford; the stakes are too high.

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The MGM Hack - Protect your digital assets with Mesh Security against potential MGM Hack threats. Your shield against the unexpected.

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Discover the power of CSMA with Mesh Security. Uncover the essence of Cybersecurity Mesh Architecture with CSMA's role and benefits

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Netanel Azoulay

31.07.2023
Time To Build The Cybersecurity Mesh

Cybersecurity Mesh Architecture (CSMA) offers a transformative approach to enhance traditional defense-in-depth strategies, focusing on interoperability, collaboration, and context awareness.

CSMA provides a comprehensive and integrated security framework with key components like Security Intelligence, Identity Fabric, Unified Policy/Posture/Playbook Management, and an Integrated Operational Dashboard.

Implementing CSMA enables organizations to proactively detect and respond to threats, establish identity-centric perimeters, simplify security operations, and enhance collaboration among teams and vendors.

What is CSMA?

As organizations transition from site-centric architectures to identity-first and distributed frameworks, the need for transformational security strategies becomes paramount. In response to evolving security threats, Gartner's VP analyst, Patrick Hevesi, introduced the concept of Cybersecurity Mesh Architecture in 2021. CSMA aims to bridge the shortcomings of the traditional Defense-in-Depth (DID) approach by emphasizing interoperability and coordination among security teams and products and creating an integrated, context-aware, and agile security ecosystem.

The Importance of CSMA

Gartner predicts that "by 2024, organizations adopting a cybersecurity mesh architecture will reduce the financial impact of security incidents by an average of 90%. The rapid evolution and sophistication of cyberattacks and the migration of assets to the hybrid multi-cloud creates a perfect storm. IT leaders must integrate security tools into a cooperative ecosystem using a composable and scalable cybersecurity mesh architecture approach."

Cybersecurity Mesh Architecture (CSMA) offers a transformative approach to enhance traditional defense-in-depth strategies, focusing on interoperability, collaboration, and context awareness.

The need for Cyber Mesh arises in highly complex, decade-aged infrastructures that are empirically inadequate against modern identity- and data-centric cyber threats. It offers advantages over traditional security approaches, including standardized security, decentralized identity posture, collaboration, reduced security gaps, easier deployment and management, and the ability to embrace new technologies. Cyber Mesh ultimately provides a decentralized yet centralized security framework (DecCeSec).

CSMA Key Components

CSMA is built upon four interconnected layers, each serving a distinct purpose in the security framework:

1. Security Intelligence - Security intelligence seamlessly integrates diverse data sources from all environments and layers, providing organizations with a comprehensive view of their business performance. CSMA analyzes and understands entity behavior across the digital infrastructure by harnessing advanced technologies like AI and data science. This enables continuous monitoring, anomaly detection, and timely response, addressing the evolving landscape of security threats and surpassing the limitations of reactive and human-driven approaches. The Security Intelligence Layer empowers organizations to contextually, dynamically, and proactively protect their digital assets and ensure the resilience of their security posture.

2. Identity Fabric - In CSMA, identity is the new perimeter. According to research, 80% of organizations suffered identity-related breaches last year. Access to digital assets is determined based on explicitly authenticated and authorized identities, transcending traditional network boundaries. Organizations adopt a least-privilege access model to ensure only authorized individuals can access sensitive data and resources. This layer establishes real-time context, dynamically calculating different attributes to determine the trustworthiness of every digital interaction or transaction across the estate.

3. Unified Policy, Posture, and Playbook Management - CSMA advocates for a distributed architectural approach that is continuous, consistent, and context-aware. This involves developing, implementing, and enforcing policies, analyzing and fortifying security postures, and managing playbooks across the entire digital estate. By centralizing these activities, organizations establish a unified and proactive security strategy.

4. Integrated Operational Dashboard - CSMA provides a consolidated operational dashboard with real-time data visualization of potential attacks and threats. This dashboard enables organizations to monitor their digital assets closely, identifying at-risk entities. Ideally, with visualized color-coded indicators changing based on threat severity, CSMA empowers organizations to respond promptly and effectively to pre-breach and real-time threats. The integrated dashboard offers unprecedented visibility, serving as a single pane of glass across teams, technologies, and environments, fostering a common language and understanding.

CSMA creates a comprehensive and context-aware security framework by integrating these four layers. It leverages advanced technologies, redefines the concept of the perimeter, establishes a unified security strategy, and provides real-time visibility and monitoring. This cohesive approach enables organizations to proactively protect their digital assets, mitigate threats, and respond effectively to security incidents in the ever-evolving threat landscape.

To fully harness the potential of CSMA, Gartner recommends incorporating data scientists into security teams. Data science is crucial in leveraging emerging technologies such as AI, augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR), natural language interaction, voice recognition, swarm computing, and autonomous computing. Additionally, the Tetrix Model, incorporating 3D visualization, holds significant promise for the future of CSMA.

Decoding CSMA: Key Elements and Benefits

1. Interoperability and Integration - CSMA promotes collaboration and integration between security products and teams, breaking down the silos of traditional security frameworks. By fostering interoperability, CSMA enables seamless communication, information sharing, and a cohesive defense strategy across the organization's digital ecosystem.

2. Context-Aware Security - CSMA goes beyond static security measures by continuously monitoring and analyzing the behavior of entities across the digital estate. It enables proactive threat detection, rapid response, and timely mitigation of potential risks, considering the dynamic nature of digital environments.

3. Identity-Centric Perimeters - Recognizing that the traditional network perimeter is empirically insufficient, CSMA establishes identity as the new perimeter. Access to digital assets is determined based on explicitly authenticated and authorized identities, continuously ensuring that only trusted individuals can access sensitive data and resources.

4. Proactive and Real-Time Defense - CSMA takes a proactive approach to cybersecurity, enabling organizations to anticipate and mitigate threats before significant harm occurs. With real-time visualization and monitoring through an integrated operational dashboard, CSMA empowers organizations to detect anomalies, monitor potential attacks, and respond swiftly and effectively.

5. Collaboration and Collective Intelligence - CSMA encourages collaboration among vendors, organizations, and security teams. By sharing data, adopting a common language, and integrating security products, organizations can tap into the collective intelligence of the cybersecurity community. This collaboration strengthens defense capabilities and enables organizations to stay ahead of emerging threats.

CSMA Bridges the Security Tool Sprawl

One of the challenges organizations face in traditional cybersecurity strategies is security tool sprawl. Over the years, organizations relying on defense-in-depth strategy have acquired and implemented many security tools over the years to address specific, in some cases outdated threats and vulnerabilities.

However, this fragmented approach resulted in a complex and disjointed security infrastructure. Managing and integrating these disparate tools becomes daunting, increasing operational costs and decreasing efficiency, which demands a radical transformation.

CSMA offers a solution to security tool sprawl by advocating for an integrated and interconnected security framework. CSMA promotes collaboration and interoperability among security tools instead of relying on isolated and siloed security products. By integrating different security solutions into a cohesive ecosystem, organizations can streamline their security operations and leverage the collective intelligence of these tools. This reduces the complexity of managing multiple tools and enhances the overall effectiveness of the security infrastructure.

With CSMA, organizations can eliminate redundant or overlapping security tools, saving costs and improving operational efficiency. The integrated nature of CSMA enables seamless communication and data sharing among security products, facilitating a coordinated and context-aware defense strategy. By consolidating security tools within the Cybersecurity Mesh, organizations can achieve a more streamlined and effective approach to protecting their digital assets.

Why Must CSMA Be Vendor-Agnostic?

Organizations rely on multiple vendors for security solutions in today's cybersecurity landscape. Each vendor offers a unique set of capabilities and expertise, and organizations often choose the best-of-breed approach, selecting different products from different vendors to meet their specific security needs. However, this approach can lead to vendor lock-in and interoperability challenges.

CSMA recognizes the importance of vendor-agnosticism in building a resilient and flexible security architecture. By embracing a vendor-agnostic approach, organizations can leverage the strengths of multiple vendors while avoiding the limitations of a single vendor's ecosystem. This allows organizations to choose the most suitable security products and technologies based on their specific requirements rather than being restricted to a particular vendor's offerings.

Vendor-agnosticism also promotes collaboration and integration among vendors. When security products from different vendors can seamlessly communicate and share information, organizations can tap into the collective intelligence and expertise of the cybersecurity community. This collaborative approach enhances defense capabilities and enables organizations to respond effectively to emerging threats.

Furthermore, a vendor-agnostic CSMA implementation future-proofs organizations by providing flexibility and adaptability. As new technologies and solutions emerge, organizations can easily incorporate them into their security ecosystem without being constrained by a single vendor's roadmap. This ensures that organizations can stay ahead of evolving threats and leverage the latest innovations in cybersecurity.

Zero Trust Architecture and CSMA

Cybersecurity mesh architecture seeks to decentralize and distribute security controls throughout an organization's infrastructure, integrating them into every network element for enhanced adaptability. In contrast, the zero trust model emphasizes strict access controls and verification at each stage, assuming no inherent trust in users or devices. Cybersecurity mesh distributes security controls, while zero trust prioritizes access controls. Both approaches offer advantages and face potential challenges, with suitability dependent on organizational needs and infrastructure.

In addition to its comprehensive security approach, the Unified Policy, Posture, and Playbook Management layer of the Cybersecurity Mesh Architecture (CSMA) can enable organizations to drive the implementation of a Zero Trust Architecture. With its emphasis on continuous monitoring, context awareness, and distributed architecture, CSMA aligns perfectly with the principles of Zero Trust.

By developing, implementing, and enforcing policies across the entire digital estate, CSMA ensures that all entities, interactions, and transactions are subject to scrutiny and verification, regardless of location or network boundaries. This approach eliminates the inherent trust traditionally placed in network perimeters and enforces a zero-trust mindset where every access request and interaction is treated as potentially malicious until proven otherwise.

CSMA's centralized management of security postures allows organizations to continuously analyze and fortify their security measures based on real-time threat intelligence and contextual information. This proactive stance aligns with the Zero Trust principle of assuming breach, which focuses on continuously assessing and adapting security measures to evolving threats.

Furthermore, CSMA's playbook management, which outlines predefined response actions for various security incidents, facilitates a coordinated and effective incident response in a Zero Trust Architecture. By centralizing and automating these playbooks, organizations can ensure consistent and swift responses to security events, reducing the time to detect and mitigate potential threats.

CSMA's Unified Policy, Posture, and Playbook Management layer seamlessly integrate with a Zero Trust Architecture by promoting continuous monitoring, context awareness, and a proactive security strategy. By enforcing strict policies, continuously fortifying security postures, and enabling coordinated incident response, CSMA enables organizations to adopt a comprehensive Zero Trust approach that minimizes the reliance on implicit trust and maximizes the protection of digital assets.

Benefits of CSMA

As the threat landscape constantly evolves, traditional cybersecurity approaches are proving inadequate. Organizations need to adopt a proactive, context-aware, and integrated security architecture like CSMA to protect their digital assets effectively. By building the Cybersecurity Mesh, organizations can achieve the following:

1. Enhanced Resilience - CSMA enables organizations to proactively detect and respond to security threats, minimizing the impact of potential breaches and improving overall resilience.

2. Simplified Operations - CSMA's integrated and centralized approach reduces complexity in managing security operations, eliminating silos, and streamlining processes.

3. Scalable Security - The Cybersecurity Mesh allows organizations to scale their security infrastructure as their digital footprint expands, ensuring consistent protection across all environments.

4. Adaptive Defense - CSMA leverages AI and data science to continuously analyze and understand entity behavior, enabling organizations to adapt their defense strategies in real time.

5. Improved Collaboration - CSMA fosters collaboration among security teams, enabling them to share threat intelligence, coordinate response efforts, and align security policies across the organization.

By embracing CSMA and building the Cybersecurity Mesh, organizations can future-proof their security strategies and effectively navigate the evolving threat landscape.

Challenges in Implementing CSMA

While CSMA offers numerous benefits, organizations may face challenges during implementation. One common concern is managing the transition from existing security frameworks and integrating various security tools into a cohesive ecosystem. To address this, it's essential to thoroughly assess the organization's security infrastructure, identify redundancies, and prioritize integration efforts. Creating a roadmap and collaborating closely with vendors can help streamline the process. Additionally, providing comprehensive training and education to security teams on CSMA principles and best practices is crucial to ensure a smooth transition and maximize the effectiveness of the implemented architecture.

Drawbacks of Not Implementing CSMA

Limited interoperability and collaboration among security teams and products

Reactive security posture, leaving organizations vulnerable to evolving threats

Inefficient security operations with tool sprawl and increased complexity

Inadequate identity-centric security, risking unauthorized access and data breaches

Tips for Implementing CSMA

Conduct a security assessment and understand existing strengths and weaknesses

Foster a collaborative culture to enable seamless communication among teams and vendors

Prioritize identity-centric perimeters with robust IAM solutions

Leverage data science and AI for continuous monitoring and proactive threat detection

Choose vendor-agnostic solutions for flexibility and integration

Train and educate security teams on CSMA principles and advanced technologies

Implement in phases and continuously assess and improve your security posture

Conclusion

The Cybersecurity Mesh Architecture (CSMA) represents a paradigm shift in cybersecurity, offering a comprehensive and integrated approach to safeguarding digital assets. Organizations adopting CSMA can enhance security posture, detect and respond to anomalies effectively, and establish identity-centric perimeters. Collaboration, integration, and the incorporation of data science and emerging technologies are key to realizing the full potential of CSMA.

In a rapidly evolving threat landscape, CSMA provides organizations with the tools and strategies to mitigate cyber risks proactively. CSMA fosters a cohesive, context-aware security ecosystem by embracing interoperability and coordination among security products and teams. This reduces business risk, enhances operational efficiency, and disrupts traditional cybersecurity paradigms.

Embracing CSMA is crucial for organizations seeking to future-proof their resiliency. Its vendor-agnostic approach enables organizations to leverage the strengths of multiple vendors while avoiding the limitations of a single vendor's ecosystem. This flexibility and adaptability allow organizations to choose the most suitable security products and technologies based on their specific requirements, stay ahead of emerging threats, and incorporate the latest innovations in cybersecurity.

While implementing CSMA may present challenges, thorough assessment, vendor collaboration, and comprehensive training can help organizations overcome these obstacles. By building a solid foundation through CSMA, organizations can establish a proactive defence strategy, streamline their security operations, and effectively protect their digital assets.

In conclusion, CSMA unlocks the future of cybersecurity by introducing a comprehensive and integrated approach. Organizations adopting CSMA can strengthen their security posture, detect and respond to anomalies effectively, and establish identity-centric perimeters. Collaboration, integration, and the incorporation of data science and emerging technologies are key to realizing the full potential of CSMA. It is time for organizations to embrace the Cybersecurity Mesh Architecture and build a solid foundation for protecting their digital assets in an ever-evolving threat landscape.

Put Theory Into Practice with Mesh Security

Combine the power of zero trust and mesh architecture to build a comprehensive and adaptable defense against sophisticated cyber attacks.

Mesh Security is the world's first CSMA agentless SaaS platform that fuses zero trust principles and mesh architecture to seamlessly enable an adaptive, robust, and secure posture. Mesh breaks down silos and unifies security tools and components into one cohesive system easily managed from a single pane of glass.

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What is CSMA | Cybersecurity Mesh Architecture CSMA

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Discover the power of CSMA with Mesh Security. Uncover the essence of Cybersecurity Mesh Architecture with CSMA's role and benefits

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Embrace 2023 as the year for a genuine Zero Trust architecture and mindset shift with Mesh Security

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Netanel Azoulay

01.01.2023

Zero Trust started as a philosophy a decade ago as an alternative to network-based perimeter security, and now it is the hottest term in the industry. However, merely debating about 'Zero Trust' won't make it happen. Zero Trust in modern enterprises is still a scattered puzzle rather than a sustainable architecture that lacks a unified foundation essential to turn this conceptuality into reality.

The 2022 identity-centric cyberattacks (Okta, Uber, Cisco, and many more) emphasized why, in 2023, Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) could no longer be a hesitant webinar topic but a substance security standard for every organization in the modern era.

The Trend

The Zero Trust model is being embraced globally to combat the ever-escalating threat landscape. Okta's latest 'State of Zero Trust' report found that 97% of companies either have a Zero Trust initiative in place or will have one in the next 12-18 months.

Zero Trust is becoming one of the most reliable and adopted digital security frameworks as more businesses implement its principles to eliminate business risks, reduce complexities and costs, and enable overall organizational stability, productivity, and growth.

However, despite the increasing adoption, 63% of organizations face gaps in their Zero Trust initiatives, struggling to operationalize Zero Trust and implement its principles and practices constantly and comprehensively.

The Evolution of Zero Trust

The traditional site-centric "moat-and-castle" architecture for security goes back to the early '90s when the main challenge was to connect between sites without worrying too much about security breaches. During these years, different security tools, such as FW, NAC, IPS, and many others, were gradually introduced to layer this approach, resulting in a Defense-in-Depth (DID) security framework.

However, with innovation, digital transformation, and cloud migrations, cyberattacks increasingly became a global threat. In fact, cybercrimes are now anticipated to cost the world $10.5 trillion annually by 2025.

The evolving global threat sparked Forrester's analyst John Kindervag, back in 2010, to prophesize a novel notion for security called "Zero Trust" - a radically different identity-centric approach to information security.

During this decade, the massive expansion of work-from-anywhere, multi-cloud, and SaaS applications dramatically expanded organizations' attack surface and business risks. Unsurprisingly that resulted in devastating cyberattacks, which has urged the need for Kindervag's approach and driven the final nail in the coffin of the traditional 30-year-old perimeter architecture.

Then in late 2019, Gartner came out with the SASE (Secured Access Service Edge) concept, which converges organizations' networking and security into a single, cloud-delivered service model that includes Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) as one of its core elements.

In 2020, NIST published SP 800-207 as a unified framework, introducing a fundamental shift into a new identity-centric era called 'Zero Trust'.

After at least 2,354 ransomware attacks on local governments, healthcare facilities, and schools in the United States in May 2021, the Biden administration published an Executive Order on improving the Nation's Cybersecurity (EO #14028), which mandated the adoption of Zero Trust principles for all agencies by 2024.

It triggered a wave of change, potentially affecting 1 Billion users globally, enthroning Zero Trust to be the future of cybersecurity. Recently the DoD released a Zero Trust strategy guide seeking to unify efforts to achieve a robust defensive posture against adversaries.

What is Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA)?

In order to understand what Zero Trust Architecture is, it is essential to clarify what it is not. Zero Trust cannot simply be adopted by implementing new technology, nor is it a point product or service you can go out and buy.

Zero Trust is a security strategy that proposes to secure an organization's DAAS (Data, Applications, Assets, and Services) by eliminating implicit trust and by continuously (and proactively) validating EVERY digital interaction or transaction at all stages.

Rooted in the principle of "never trust, always verify," Zero Trust is designed to comprehensively protect modern organizations by effectively enforcing its three basic principles:

1) Explicit Verification - Verifying explicitly every(!) single digital Interaction or transaction.

2) Least Privilege Access - Limiting access for every identity only to the absolutely necessary privileges to do their job.

3) Assume Breach - Assume that every identity has already been breached.

Why 2023 Must be the Year of ZTA

IBM researchers warned recently that cyber attackers are devising new techniques to exploit innovative controls such as MFA and EDR, making 2023 a highly challenging year for security teams and security leaders.

In 2022 it wasn't just the recent Uber breach in which the victim's MFA was compromised; at the core of the vast majority of cyber incidents was the theft and abuse of legitimate credentials. 80% of the attacks leveraged some form of identities and credentials to gain initial access, move laterally, and eventually exfiltrate or encrypt sensitive data.

According to Accenture, in 2023, we expect to see more tactics that involve legitimate access to a corporate network that no longer involves deploying malware. The focus will be on living-off-the-land techniques to exploit what is already available in the victim's environment.

Once considered a 'silver bullet' in the fight against credential abuse, it hasn't taken attackers long to bypass identity-centric 'Zero Trust' controls such as MFA, and they will focus on doing so in 2023. Current Zero Trust postures rely on fragmented and tactical elements such as ZTNA, MFA, Device health, and more, but they are seen as a stand-alone 'set and forget' solution.

Blindspots around accessibility, privilege, and usability continue to be amplified by increases in the ever-expanding XaaS estate (Cloud infra, SaaS, PaaS, and more). Today and in the future, point Zero Trust controls such as MFA, EDR, and more should be viewed as one component of a broader zero trust architecture, where behavior-based analytics is central to understanding identities' behavior and authenticating the actions taken using certain credentials. A true holistic ZTA is the ultimate solution for all today's challenges.

ZTA is a purposed-built comprehensive security ecosystem that harmonically and agilely adapts to the business according to risks-based parameters to deliver the best cybersecurity mesh to gain constant resilience against today's sophisticated and multi-layer cyberattacks. 2022 urged the need more than ever - to implement ZTA holistically, but most importantly, maintain it constantly to work altogether.

The Benefits of a ZTA

Zero Trust delivers significant security improvements and reduces costs and complexity while providing more peace of mind for business and IT leaders, cybersecurity teams, and end users. Below listed are some of the benefits of implementing a ZTA comprehensively:

1. Reduced Business Risks

Zero Trust security reduces the risk of a data breach by 50%.

Reduces the attack surface by up to 150%.

Minimizes the likelihood of regulatory fines and compliance breaches.

2. Reduced Costs and Complexity

Accelerates and enables security vendor consolidation.

Reduction of the resources required for audit and compliance management by 25%, saving over $2M.

Reduction in spending on legacy software and infrastructure by over $7 million. The composite organization saves $20 per employee per month by eliminating now-redundant security solutions, including endpoint management, antivirus, and antimalware solutions.

It enables the transition from CAPEX to OPEX-reducing the need for enterprises to acquire additional Hardware.

3. Improved Workforce Productivity & Experience

Increases the efficiency of security teams by 50%.

Accelerates the process of setting up end users on new devices by 75%.

Reduction in effort required to provision and secure new infrastructure by 80%.

Load reduction of security and IAM-related help desk calls by 50%.

It makes it easy for frontline workers to gain access to business-critical applications and systems of record - saving more than three business days per year.

How to Get Started with ZTA?

When designing a ZTA, your security and IT teams should first focus on answering two questions:

What are you trying to protect?

From whom are you trying to protect it?

This strategy will inform the way you design your architecture. Following that, the most effective approach is to layer technologies and processes on top of your strategy, not the other way around.

Mesh Security is the industry's first complete Zero Trust Posture Management ( ZTPM) SaaS platform, a single source of truth that enables companies to implement and monitor a unified ZTA on top of their existing stack. Without using agents, Mesh seamlessly maps a company's entire cloud XaaS estate in minutes, providing comprehensive contextual visibility, control, and protection of the 'Everywhere Enterprise'.

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2023: The Year for a True Zero Trust Architecture (and Mindset). - Mesh Security

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Embrace 2023 as the year for a genuine Zero Trust architecture and mindset shift with Mesh Security

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In a world of evolving threats, discover why organizations may falter in implementing Zero Trust security. Explore insights with Zero Trust Security Vendors

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Netanel Azoulay

30.01.2023

Okta's latest 'State of Zero Trust' report found that 97% of companies either have a Zero Trust initiative in place or will have one in the next 12-18 months. According to Gartner, over 50% will fail to realize the benefits, and just 10% of large enterprises will have a "mature and measurable" Zero Trust program by 2026.

Zero Trust is a mighty security mindset that can be transformative to businesses. It empowers organizations to eliminate implicit trust with identity-centric and context-based risk-appropriate trust adaptively. However, its full potential can only be realized if organizations embrace it not just as a security standard but also as a cultural shift and vision. It's essential for businesses to have clear communication about Zero Trust in order to realize the benefits of Zero Trust architecture rather than fail with it.

Zero Trust Programs Stall, Despite Interest

The massive security vendor hype surrounded Zero Trust in recent years, with many claiming to have the solutions to'Zero Trustify' organizations out of the box, creating vast confusion among security leaders and IT executives.

It's well-emphasized that a Zero Trust Architecture cannot simply be adopted by implementing new technology, nor is it a point product or service you can go out and buy. According to CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency), it's an ongoing journey rather than a destination that requires continuous refinement.

In addition to the transformative mindset, in order to properly implement a ZTA, organizations are forced to acquire new knowledge and skills, implement new processes, and adopt new technologies. That might explain why according to Forrester, over 63% of organizations are struggling to implement Zero Trust.

Despite the Biden administration's mandate for federal agencies to implement Zero Trust, and given the high level of market saturation, many organizations have struggled with their Zero Trust initiatives in 2022. Even though the landscape has changed drastically since previous years, organizations have been caught in stiff headwinds. They are still not yet even close to reaping the full benefits of Zero Trust security, as according to Gartner, only 1% currently have a mature and measurable program in place.

Those who hadn't made the leap to Zero Trust in 2022 said the transition was just too difficult and wouldn't be effective at their organization. Others said budget limitations and inadequate staff to provide oversight or support for a zero-trust model kept them from adopting it. However, the most prevalent obstacles in adopting Zero Trust were the lack of knowledge about the framework and the lack of buy-in from senior management.
And the resounding result is that Gartner predicts that over 50% of organizations will fail to realize the benefits of Zero Trust.
This dramatic conclusion should agitate every Zero Trust leader.

It's difficult to comprehend how organizations will likely end up unsecured, inefficient, and non-compliant despite massive spending of a cumulative total of $241B on a Zero Trust security by 2027, as per MarketsandMarkets.

Failing to realize the benefits of Zero Trust means waste of resources, higher business risk, high costs and complexities, a less productive workforce, poor user experience, and more.

The Reasons

As ZTA is a transformational architecture that shifts organizations' traditional cybersecurity strategy, it comes with inherent challenges that make it elusive to achieve. These barriers can be categorized into three core pillars: technological, organizational, and economical.

Technological Challenges

(1) The new "Everywhere Enterprise" comes with pain.

Protecting a distributed enterprise is highly challenging.

The paradigmatic shift from site-centric architecture into an identity-centric isn't a walk in the park. Mobile workforce, multi-cloud infrastructures, SaaS applications, chaotic data posture, newly embraced technologies, dependency on internet access, and more turns Zero Trust in the cloud to be daunting for modern enterprises.

Absurdly, that results in "next-gen" complexity that inhibits the implementation of the root principles of Zero Trust:

Explicit verification of every (!) digital interaction or transaction

Least privilege access and permissions

Assume breach mindset

(2) Difficulty in keeping up the Zero Trust architecture with the constantly evolving threat landscape.

These days, companies struggle with Zero Trust as attackers adapt to get around it.

Today, the digital threat landscape is evolving at an unprecedented rate. Adversaries are constantly evolving and are leveraging innovative attack vectors while businesses increase their efforts to deploy the latest security measures of protection. IBM researchers warned recently that cyber attackers are devising new techniques to exploit innovative controls such as MFA and EDR, making a ZTA challenging for security teams and leaders. Gartner estimates that only 10% will create a mature zero-trust framework by 2026, and by that time, those measures will end up only blocking or minimizing the impact of about half of all attacks.

Amidst all this, businesses can find it a daunting task to invest and upgrade their defense measures while also going through an exhaustive and resource-consuming process of adopting Zero Trust architecture.

(3) Difficulty in comprehensively maintaining the necessary level of security, visibility, and control.

Zero Trust architecture rhymes with the principles of the Gartner CSMA notion (Cybersecurity Mesh Architecture) and is designed to work when all of its principles are implemented and adopted constantly and holistically. Many zero-trust-adopting businesses struggle to maintain a consistent level of security, visibility, and control across the complex and dynamic environment of multi-layer, multi-vendor, traditional processes and siloed operation of the business.

(4) Difficulty integrating existing security infrastructure and tools with a zero-trust architecture.

Most businesses are built on and still use traditional strategies and technologies that are becoming obsolete and never built to support or integrate Zero-trust principles. Integrating such traditional environments to support a Zero Trust architecture becomes a huge challenge for businesses interested in adopting Zero Trust, as it demands heavy reforms in existing environments - resulting in significant gaps, resources, and budget consumption.

(5) Difficulty in ensuring the necessary level of security for cloud and mobile environments.

Zero Trust requires all identities to be constantly authenticated with the minimum level of access to resources to do their tasks. Many organizations today have controls and policies that are not built with zero-trust principles in mind. Implementing zero-trust principles in environments where data, applications, and infrastructure rely on the cloud for functioning can be very challenging. Introducing new changes in such an environment can become expensive quickly. It can lead to friction in user productivity, experience, and downtimes, which may further result in business loss or service disruptions.

Organizational Challenges

(1) Shift in mindset

Although the term Zero Trust was conceived in 2010 by John Kindervag, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc., today, businesses everywhere are still struggling to understand and implement its principles.

Not only does it indicate a change required in the traditional business mindset but the amount of time it can take for the business world to understand, transform, and adopt Zero Trust fully.

(2) Marketing noise causes confusion

Although Zero Trust has become the new industry standard for cybersecurity, its frequent productization by vendors and sales teams has led to confusion and misconceptions around it. Vendors today intensively overuse the term 'Zero Trust' for their benefits. As stated earlier this year by zScaler's CEO, Jay Chaudhry, "Network security firms have 'hijacked' zero trust, " resulting in a fog around this imperative notion. Unfortunately, organizations end up mainly with a 'fancy' toolset but not with the appropriate mindset.

(3) Cybersecurity skills shortage

According to experts, 59% of businesses would find it difficult to respond to a cybersecurity incident due to the shortage of cybersecurity skills. While over 3.4 million cybersecurity jobs are waiting to be filled, the available talent is mainly educated on network-centric security rather than identity-centric security - making it even harder for organizations to adopt and implement Zero Trust.

(4) Resistance to change and adoption of new technologies and processes

Every organization has workers that may be reluctant to change and may need special training to understand and adopt new technologies and processes introduced in an existing workplace environment. It can be time and resource-consuming for businesses to conduct such special employee training while productivity also drops.

(5) Difficulty in balancing security with user experience and accessibility

Implementing security practices of Zero Trust in an existing digital infrastructure means re-designing key processes, operations, UI/UX elements, etc., from a Zero Trust security perspective. It poses significant challenges for businesses, requiring major reforms in an already functioning business environment.

(6) Lack of understanding of the concept of Zero Trust architecture and its benefits.

A survey finds nearly half of the IT professionals surveyed, 47% say their company's leadership doesn't understand zero trust security.

The traditional site-centric "moat-and-castle" architecture served as the main foundation for cybersecurity for decades. Transforming into a novel mindset and strategy is a highly challenging task at the organizational level. The departments and teams are experienced and synced around a site-centric and network-identities strategy, and shifting away from it, requires a granular and fundamental change in mindset.

Economical Challenges

(1) Difficulty in obtaining buy-in and support from upper management and other key stakeholders

Adopting Zero Trust is a major ongoing change in any organization - a change in terms of both business infrastructure and mindset. Due to a lack of knowledge, employee resistance, or other factors, the higher management of a business may not approve the implementation of Zero Trust.

(2) Insufficient budget and resources to implement and maintain a zero-trust architecture.

The changes required for implementing Zero Trust in all aspects of a business can require a plethora of resources and investment that the management or other stakeholders of an organization may not approve, while small-to-medium enterprises may not even have the required resources to begin with.

Conclusion

If an organization fails to implement a zero-trust architecture, it may be at a higher risk of data breaches and cyberattacks. This can lead to several negative outcomes, such as financial losses, reputational damage, legal liabilities, loss of confidential information, difficulty managing a distributed workforce, and many more.

Mesh Security is the industry's first complete Zero Trust Posture Management ( ZTPM) SaaS platform, a single source of truth that enables companies to implement and monitor a unified ZTA on top of their existing stack. Without using agents, Mesh seamlessly maps a company's entire cloud XaaS estate in minutes, providing comprehensive contextual visibility, control, and protection of the 'Everywhere Enterprise'.

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Sad, But True: Why Organizations Will Likely Fail With Zero Trust - Zero Trust Security Vendors

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In a world of evolving threats, discover why organizations may falter in implementing Zero Trust security. Explore insights with Zero Trust Security Vendors