Cyberattacks are on the rise, making it challenging for IT administrators and security professionals to cope with the frequently changing threat landscape. According to the IBM data breach report, 2021 saw the highest average cost of a data breach in 17 years, with the average cost increasing from $3.86 million to $4.24 million from the previous year.
Since the pandemic, organizations have adopted the work-from-home model to ensure safety and comfort for their employees. Unfortunately, this shift has paved the way for threat actors to take advantage of the loopholes present in the WFH model.
With remote working, it is almost impossible to track every employees' activity because they are outside the organization’s network perimeter. This lack of visibility over an employee's activity could lead to account compromises and unnoticed anomalous activities. If a threat actor takes over a user's account, they might gain unauthorized access to systems, accounts, and networks. Then, they might escalate access permissions to launch full-fledged cyberattacks. These attacks can jeopardize the integrity of an organization’s cybersecurity infrastructure, resulting in untenable security incidents, including data breaches.
When an account is compromised by a password or phishing attack, IT admins must be able to detect malicious activities in real time to halt the lateral movements of an attacker.
Use 3 easy techniques to prevent cyberattacks
Deploying three easily implemented techniques helps ensure your organization can efficiently detect and resolve a security threat.
Account compromise alerts
Users can fall victim to phishing campaigns that can pave the way for password attacks and covert installations of ransomware. Deploying honeytoken accounts, which are bogus accounts created to detect and trace fraudulent activities, can mitigate security incidents. Honeytoken accounts should display an attractive name to entice attackers, but appear to be unused and should remain inactive so if a threat actor gains access to these accounts, the IT admin can track their movements and take decisive actions.
Rule-based alerts
By leveraging sophisticated tools and using methods, threat actors can circumvent an organization's security. Dictionary attacks and brute-force attacks, for example, involve multiple iterations of password inputs by using different combinations of characters, letters, numbers, and special characters. This is where rule-based alerts can help. Rule-based alerts trigger specific actions to transpire when multiple login attempts or unauthorized access to sensitive systems are detected in an IT environment. By implementing modern rule-based alerting solutions, IT admins can configure a specific action to mitigate a specific security incident, bolstering an organization's security.
Real-time monitoring integrated with AI
Insider threats are an age-old problem, yet organizations continue to struggle to prevent them. Complicating efforts with halting insider attacks is the lack of a proactive approach towards detecting a user's anomalous activity. To tackle insider threats, organizations should be able to detect suspicious user activities in real time, and also automate the corrective action to prevent the escalation of a threat.
Integrating real-time data with machine learning and advanced analytics can help preempt a user's anomalous activity. Assisting IT admins with predictive insights enables them to take decisive actions to protect their organization. With the incorporation of AI, analytics, real-time monitoring, and a continuous data feed of an employee’s activity, IT admins can instantly remediate significant security incidents, such as account compromises and data breaches.
IT admins need to be aware of their employee's activity, or the lack of visibility over their employee's activity could lead to security risks such as compromised accounts and malware attacks. This could leave organizations susceptible to fraudulent transactions and security breaches. This can be lethal for an organization; it might break their banks to pay compensation for the damage caused by a security breach.
With ManageEngine AD360, the real-time process of detecting and reporting a security threat is seamless and automated. The solution can fulfill an IT admin's dream by providing true empowerment to resolve issues in the organization's security system.