3 Steps to Elevate Your Cybersecurity in a Post-Pandemic World

The COVID-19 pandemic sent shock waves through the information security (infosec) community. Because of the almost-overnight move to remote work, and the persistence of this practice, leaders are struggling to facilitate the exchange of business-critical information sharing without compromising security. 

In the past, infosec and IT professionals have rapidly adopted new technologies to ensure business continuity and employee productivity. However, in the rush to enable remote work during and after the pandemic, they let security concerns take a back seat, leaving their organizations vulnerable to cyberattacks.

Securing remote employee access

One of the biggest modern infosec and IT challenges is the increased risk of unauthorized access and data breaches. Businesses have record numbers of remote workers and personal device users — which means they’re also more susceptible to security breaches. 

To defend against cyberthreats, many organizations offered their remote employees virtual private network (VPN) access. However, this measure wasn’t always enough. Here’s why: The first point of interface for remote employees is typically a wireless broadband connection that’s often shared with family, friends, or other individuals in a shared accommodation. Home wireless routers have extremely rudimentary security and encryption capabilities, making them easy and attractive targets for cybercriminals and threat actors. 

Vulnerable to phishing scams and breaches

According to research published by Deloitte, 47% of remote workers fell for phishing scams while working from home. Between February and May of 2020, more than 500,000 people were affected by breaches where the personal data of video conferencing users was stolen and sold on the dark web. The World Economic Forum’s COVID-19 Risks Outlook Report notes that 50% of surveyed enterprises are concerned about increased cyberattacks due to the shift in at-home work patterns, making it the third-most worrisome concern in their survey. 

The rapid shift to home-based access of corporate resources and infrastructure also means that employees might not have received adequate training on security best practices for remote work. This leaves remote employees more vulnerable to phishing and other social engineering tactics designed for ransomware and multi-extortion attacks. 

It’s increasingly evident that cybercriminals target remote employees as an infiltration point and then expand the scope of their attacks on an organization. This modus operandi makes it necessary for infosec teams to adopt a comprehensive and unified approach. 

3 steps to comprehensive cybersecurity

Read on to learn more about the three steps to comprehensive cybersecurity:

1. Start with the “never trust, always verify” philosophy

2. Safeguard your network infrastructure

3. Invest in and strengthen continuous employee training

Step 1: Start with the “never trust, always verify” philosophy

Traditional firewall and VPN implementations were the mainstay of corporate security for decades — but they’re no longer effective in securing organizations against the evolving risk environment. Now, organizations are turning to Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) solutions to address the modern threat landscape. 

ZTNA takes a "never trust, always verify"  approach to employee access, ensuring secure and granular access to resources based on user identity, device security posture, and contextual factors. 

With ZTNA, employees are only granted access to the specific resources they need based on their role and other contextual factors. This granular approach significantly reduces the chances of unauthorized access and limits the impact of potential data breaches. 

Implement ZTNA and MFA solutions

By implementing ZTNA solutions in combination with multi-factor authentication (MFA) protection, organizations of all sizes can significantly reduce security risks and protect against unauthorized access and data breaches. 

MFA requires people to provide multiple forms of identification using something they know (like a password), own (like a smartphone), or have (like a fingerprint). This ensures that even if one factor is compromised or breached, the system remains well-protected. As Jon Oltsik writes in 10 Security Changes Post-COVID-19 for CSO Magazine, “Distributed security controls and policy management must be anchored by a modern identity management infrastructure — not the organically grown patchwork we’ve kludged together.”

Step 2: Safeguard your network infrastructure 

Modern cyberthreats require modern solutions. Cloud-based defense controls provide your network infrastructure with robust protection against distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and malicious traffic threats. 

Protect against DDoS attacks

DDoS attacks overwhelm a target website or online service with a flood of internet traffic, causing the site to become slow or unavailable to legitimate users. One of the key advantages to cloud-based defense controls is the quick identification of and proactive response to attack vectors. 

By shifting the burden of security to the cloud, organizations can fortify the defense of their internet- and employee-facing assets, along with their network infrastructure. Such defense provides a more agile and scalable security response that is capable of adapting to emerging threats in real time.

Secure your DNS

Another potential vulnerability is the Domain Name System (DNS), often called the phone book of the internet, which plays a critical role in network infrastructure. Proactively securing your DNS ensures uninterrupted availability of servers, applications, APIs, and other network resources to your legitimate audiences. 

Step 3: Invest in and strengthen continuous employee training

In addition to deploying robust security measures and solutions, leaders should invest in ongoing employee education and awareness programs to protect their organizations. As cyberattacks become increasingly sophisticated, it’s essential to inform employees about the latest security threats and continuously upskill them with infosec knowledge, tools, and best practices to mitigate potential risks. 

Implement always-on monitoring

Always-on monitoring and threat intelligence gathering can also help organizations stay one step ahead of cybercriminals. This approach involves constant data collection and analysis to promptly detect and respond to any anomalies, security breaches, performance issues, or potential threats. 

By closely monitoring network activities, IT teams can identify potential security breaches or anomalies in real time and take immediate action to diminish potential risks. Regularly scheduled, proactive vulnerability assessments and penetration testing can identify and address any weaknesses in an organization's security infrastructure.

Protect operations, data, employees, infrastructure, and reputation

To defend against evolving threats, organizations of all sizes are now seeking robust cybersecurity solutions.

Akamai Prolexic 

Akamai Prolexic is a purpose-built DDoS protection platform that is available on-prem, in the cloud, or as a hybrid of both. Prolexic Cloud is powered by advanced automation, machine intelligence, and a global network of several cloud scrubbing centers across 32 global metro areas and more than 20 Tbps of dedicated defense capacity. 

The keyword to note there is “dedicated” — unlike some solutions that piggyback on their content delivery network capacity, thereby offering cybercriminals a single point of defense to overcome. To put Prolexic’s defense capacity in perspective, even the largest known Layer 3 and Layer 4 DDoS attacks don’t make up 10% of the capacity available to Prolexic customers. 

Prolexic Network Cloud Firewall

Prolexic also extends your defenses beyond DDoS with Prolexic Network Cloud Firewall. Customers can quickly, centrally, and globally block traffic that they don’t want to hit their networks or certain targets within their networks. Prolexic Network Cloud Firewall also recommends access control lists for the best proactive defense posture based on Akamai’s threat intelligence data, and delivers actionable analytics of existing rules. 

As a next-generation firewall as a service (FWaaS), Prolexic Network Cloud Firewall empowers customers to: 

• Define proactive defenses to block malicious traffic instantly

• Alleviate local infrastructure by moving rules to the edge

• Quickly adapt to network changes via a new user interface

Akamai Edge DNS

Akamai Edge DNS offers a comprehensive, purpose-built, cloud-based authoritative DNS solution that uses the scale, security, and capacity of Akamai Connected Cloud to distribute your DNS zones across several thousand servers across the globe. 

Customers delegate their zone authority to Edge DNS by updating nameserver records at the registrar and using those provided by Akamai. Edge DNS provides an unparalleled attack surface and proactive security controls that can mitigate even the largest DNS attacks without impacting a customer's DNS performance, reliability, and availability.

Akamai Shield NS53

Akamai Shield NS53 is a bidirectional DNS proxy solution that protects key components of your origin DNS infrastructure from resource exhaustion attacks. Using an intuitive user interface on the Akamai Control Center, you can self-configure, administer, manage, and enforce your organization’s specific dynamic security policies in real time. Illegitimate DNS queries and DNS attack floods are dropped at the edge of the Akamai network, keeping your DNS secure, reliable, and available. 

Akamai App & API Protector

Akamai App & API Protector is a single solution that brings together many security technologies, including web application firewall (WAF), bot mitigation, API protection, and application layer DDoS defense. App & API Protector is recognized as the leading WAAP solution for swiftly identifying and mitigating threats beyond the traditional WAF to protect entire digital estates from multidimensional attacks. The platform is easier to implement and use, provides holistic visibility, and automatically implements up-to-date, customized protections via Akamai Adaptive Security Engine.