Top tips is a weekly column where we highlight what’s trending in the tech world today and list ways to explore these trends. This week, we’re going over five steps to building a robust cybersecurity mesh.
The last few years have seen computing models and network infrastructure become increasingly fragmented and distributed. As hybrid and multi-cloud environments become more prevalent, organizations face the challenge of managing and securing increasingly complex IT environments with numerous devices, vendors, and networks.
Traditional centralized approaches to cybersecurity make sense when everything is managed in-house. However, since most organization now rely on multiple SaaS, IaaS and PaaS vendors along with their own distributed resources and remote workforce, these traditional methods are simply inadequate to deal with the increased security demands of this vastly expanded attack surface.
This fragmentation can also lead to the creation of security silos due to the disparity between some of the systems involved. This can make monitoring, managing, and securing each silo within the organization’s IT infrastructure incredibly challenging and expensive.
Cybersecurity mesh architecture, or CSMA, is a recent, scalable approach introduced by Gartner® to securing distributed assets that focuses on interoperability and coordination between these assets to strengthen an organization’s security posture.
Here’s how you can implement a robust cybersecurity mesh
1. Evaluate your current security posture
The first step to developing a robust CSMA is to thoroughly evaluate your security infrastructure: Are there any existing security silos? Are there distributed assets in your environment that lack adequate protection?
Ensure you’re aware of the current challenges in your security infrastructure so you can choose the right solutions and deploy the necessary resources to meet your security objectives.
2. Choose the right security solutions
When setting up a cybersecurity mesh, look for solutions that not only align with your goals but also have strong integration capabilities and can effectively communicate and share data with each other. CSMA is a collaborative approach to cybersecurity, and building a network of interconnected security systems and assets can go a long way in helping you achieve the desired level of interoperability.
Make sure to also implement robust identity and access management (IAM) measures like Zero Trust, multi-factor authentication (MFA), the principle of least privilege (PoLP) and other role-based access controls to both the tools and users involved.
3. Integrate these solutions under a centralized dashboard
Setting up a centralized dashboard is key to maintaining a robust cybersecurity mesh. When properly integrated with your various security tools, these dashboards offer a holistic view of your entire IT environment, enabling continuous monitoring and automated responses to security events and other incidents, regardless of how widely distributed your assets are.
4. Devise appropriate response procedures
The increased visibility provided by CSMA enables you to quickly detect threats across your entire IT environment. Thanks to the level of control provided by this security approach, you can also isolate assets and resources that may have been compromised, securing the integrity of the rest of your infrastructure. The data from your centralized dashboard can also help automate routine security checks and measures while giving you the flexibility to respond to new, previously unknown threats.
5. Continuously monitor and improve your security controls
Maintaining a robust CSMA is a continuous process; you’re constantly monitoring your infrastructure for any risks or vulnerabilities and testing the effectiveness of your response procedures. The abundance of data involved enables you to carry out a thorough evaluation of your response procedure to identify key areas of improvement when dealing with future incidents.
The next step in securing your IT environment
The biggest selling point for a cybersecurity mesh is the level of scalability and adaptability it provides. The cybersecurity landscape is constantly evolving, and being able to implement dynamic and adaptive security policies is going to play a major role in securing your organization’s IT environment.
Thanks to its emphasis on scalability, integration, constant monitoring and automation, CSMA provides organizations with the ability to deploy security resources and implement policies as and when needed across their entire IT environment, regardless of distance, to exercise complete control and stay on top of increasingly sophisticated threats.
