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 looking at four ways you can minimize your attack surface.
Organizational IT infrastructure is now more spread out, multi-layered, and complex than ever. As a result, organizations now face vastly expanded attack surfaces—the external-facing part of their environment that is susceptible to unauthorized access—as there are now significantly more entry points into their networks. And if that wasn’t concerning enough, malicious actors now have numerous attack vectors and tools at their disposal to exploit any unchecked vulnerability in an organization’s infrastructure.
While steps are being taken to enable organizations to secure their attack surface against powerful vectors, another approach to consider is to minimize the attack surface itself. The fewer opportunities there are to breach your network, the lower the chances of it happening. So how do you go about doing this?
1. Perform a thorough attack surface analysis
Knowledge is power. As with any security activity, performing a comprehensive and thorough analysis of your entire IT infrastructure is key. This is the stage where you identify existing and potential vulnerabilities in your environment and other possible risk factors like user access levels and outdated security policies. The insights you derive from this analysis will act as a starting point for your attack surface minimization strategy, making it possible to carry it out in line with the risks identified.
2. Implement strict Zero Trust policies
Never trust, always verify—regardless of user or request type. Focus on making your sensitive resources and data as hard to access as possible, unless the access criteria are met. Implement MFA for access to all your critical resources. Even when dealing with trusted users, ensure that access to these resources is only provided when strictly necessary. The harder your resources are to access, the harder it will be for an unauthorized user to breach your environment.
3. Keep all your software up to date
Outdated software is a significant vulnerability that can provide an easily exploitable entry point into your IT environment, especially if you’re using third-party software (which you probably are, thanks to the current popularity of SaaS, IaaS and PaaS vendors). These newer versions of such software may include patches for known security flaws or completely new security features. Consider investing in effective patch management software that enables you to stay on top of all software updates.
4. Implement microsegmentation
Microsegmentation is a network security approach that involves dividing your network into individual and distinct units or segments, each with their own security controls and policies, based on the nature of the task performed. Microsegmentation also helps you minimize your attack surface by enabling you to isolate segments that have been breached, preventing lateral movement within your network. This approach can also provide an additional layer of security in terms of access controls.
Analyze, adapt, overcome
There’s no escaping the sheer complexity of modern IT environments. With so many interconnected layers and components, organizations now face more security risks than ever before. Minimizing your attack surface is a surefire way to strengthen your security posture, and your organization needs to focus on attack surface minimization strategies. How you go about doing it, however, depends on your needs and the structure of your organization.
