Published Date: November 29, 2022
Enterprise security is a term that encompasses all aspects of security, particularly the protection of its data, across large organizations. While the concept of IT security is easily understood, in practice “enterprise security” is a vast and complex topic. Enterprise security involves the protection of the internal network, cloud resources, internal data, customer information and more. Increasingly, enterprise security is heavily concerned with compliance and other governance and regulatory needs: While cyberattacks can cause significant damage on their own (through data corruption or theft), the threat of governmental fines and other legal liabilities stemming from customer privacy breaches can significantly compound the damage from an attack.
Enterprise security is not the same thing as cybersecurity, which is more narrowly focused on protecting technology assets. While cybersecurity is the primary job of IT’s security operations center — and something that all employees in an organization are tasked with understanding — enterprise security is a C-level effort in most organizations, headed by a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), who is tasked with outlining a broad strategy for preventing enterprise data from being misused, attacked, or otherwise compromised — and ensuring compliance with the growing number of rules and regulations that govern corporate data.
In this article we’ll analyze what constitutes an effective enterprise security strategy, what types of security threats the modern enterprise faces and how to get started with enterprise security.
Why is enterprise security important?
Enterprise security is an essential discipline for every organization. Without a strong focus on enterprise security, the organization has no protection against attacks ranging from malware to phishing to physical theft of IT assets. Enterprise security includes technologies to:
- Manage and authenticate user access
- Encrypt and otherwise protect data
- Set strategies for patches and other upgrades
- Plan for and prevent disasters
Enterprise security, or corporate security, is concerned with protecting every layer of the technology stack, including network hardware and software, end-user devices, applications, data and storage systems and more.
All of this matters because every enterprise increasingly relies on technology services and digital assets for all aspects of operations. Even mundane activities like the ability to unlock a door can be reliant on technology that can be hacked and compromised by a dedicated attacker. As well, the number of devices managed by the typical enterprise — and the amount of data it must manage as a result — has exploded in recent years. Ensuring every device under enterprise control, many of which will never come physically near the corporate data center, is a complex but essential endeavor.
Meanwhile, threats against the corporate network have become more sophisticated and pervasive than ever. The risk of attack from phishing, malware or ransomware, or even a DDoS attack designed to overload an enterprise network is extreme — and getting worse. As enterprise networks continue to proliferate across various physical and virtual assets (via the adoption of cloud services), protecting this network fabric becomes even more complex — and critical.
What is the difference between cybersecurity and enterprise security?
Cybersecurity and enterprise security are often, and easily, confused. Cybersecurity is a subset of enterprise security, concerned with protecting computer assets from attacks by hackers. Anti-malware products, firewalls, ensuring proper configuration of various services, and the proper training of users all fall under the definition of cybersecurity. The goal of cybersecurity is to protect systems from attack and remediate them when attacks are successful.
Enterprise security is a much wider, more encompassing concept that is in large part concerned with the enterprise’s data. The goal of enterprise security is to protect customer and employee data, prevent the loss of trade secrets and other intellectual property, and manage the various risks associated with these things. Ensuring compliance with various regulations is a main goal of enterprise security. While some portion of this work is achieved through the smart implementation of cybersecurity practices, the discipline of enterprise security requires a deeper understanding of the business, the regulatory environment, the supply chain and more.
What does an enterprise security team do?
The composition of an enterprise security team varies from enterprise to enterprise, but their tasks are generally structured around the following jobs:
- Managing network security and cybersecurity threats: It sounds obvious, but the primary job of the enterprise security team is to ensure the network is secure. A security officer (or CISO) has the first and final say in all matters of security, including the design and implementation of strategies, policies, security products and services, and other aspects of network security. From architecting the network to setting password standards to performing regular security tests and audits, a good network security operation ensures that nothing is forgotten in the realm of security.
- Incident response: When security breaches do occur, the incident response group is tasked with leaping into action to identify the threat in real time, contain and minimize damage and get operations back up and running as quickly as possible.
- Enforcing privacy regulations: Today’s enterprise is inundated with rules and regulations related to employee and customer data protection. The enterprise security team must ensure that these regulations are followed to the letter to avoid fines or other regulatory penalties
- Risk management: All security threats are not created equal, and enterprise security teams must work to understand how to prioritize their threat mitigation efforts. Risks must be weighted based on the impact a breach would have on the enterprise as a whole, either financially or operationally or both. Regular risk assessments are a large part of this effort.
- Vendor qualification: If your organization shares data with other organizations, it’s important to verify that they follow stringent requirements from security experts, have similar policies on encryption and privacy, and are prepared to respond quickly in the event of a breach.
- Security auditing: Overseeing all of the above is the job of the security audit. Audits can be used to ensure security policies (such as rules related to network access) are being followed correctly, data is secure, backups are uncorrupted, and third parties are following rules as agreed./li>
Enterprise security teams may also encounter additional duties not easily siloed in the above categories, but any job related to data security or privacy can be considered within the bailiwick of the enterprise security team.
An enterprise security team is usually structured to be able to address any security or privacy concerns an organization has.
What problems does enterprise security solve?
In light of growing volumes of data and expanding attack surfaces, enterprises face myriad threats that must be addressed as a matter of course in order to maintain business continuity. These include:
- Ransomware attacks: Still the most pervasive and damaging type of cyberattack facing the enterprise at large today, ransomware is an extortion-based attack in which malicious parties encrypt an enterprise’s data files, then demand payment for the decryption key. Lately these attacks have become compounded by threats to publicly release sensitive data if a ransom isn’t paid.
- Compliance with privacy regulations: Regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, and CCPA place significant restrictions on the way enterprises can collect, manage, and use customer data. Ensuring compliance with these rules – which are multiplying globally – is a complex job that has become a core responsibility for enterprise security.
- Supply chain disruption: Supply chain attacks came to prominence after the infamous Colonial Pipeline attack — also a ransomware attack — which showcased the severe vulnerabilities of the systems that link suppliers, shippers, sellers and customers together. Today, supply chain problems — often related to security incidents — are commonly blamed for spiraling prices, retail stock-out issues, and other consumer-level shopping complaints.
- Third-party risk issues: Today’s enterprise does not exist in a vacuum. It is connected through technology to numerous suppliers and customers, with data flowing back and forth between them all. Is this information secure at every step of the way? Enterprise security aims to protect against unauthorized access.
- Hybrid workforce concerns: Organizations are still working to find the best solution for managing the combination of on-site and remote workers, a trend which shows no signs of abatement. The new security issues presented by a large number of employees working from home are still being worked out.
- IoT vulnerabilities: The so-called internet of things was never designed with security in mind, and numerous cyberattacks have used the IoT as an avenue into an organization’s IT infrastructure. Now, organizations are finding that IoT devices require significant remediation to provide a foundation of security.
- Internal threats: Whether they’re intentional, malicious attacks or the result of carelessness or mistakes, your employees and other insiders represent a lot of data breaches. A large component of enterprise security is built around the avoidance of these types of threats.
What are some of the biggest threat vectors today?
In addition to the threats mentioned above, some of the biggest threat vectors to enterprises today include:.
- Data privacy violations: The inadvertent exposure of customer data — often through a malicious hack – can have devastating consequences in the form of government fines, loss of reputation, and more.
- Hybrid and multicloud management issues: As operations move from on-premises to cloud-based environments, security gaps have opened up among enterprises unsure of how to protect data as it flows among various cloud services and back to the data center.
- Lack of proper training: Cyber attackers are getting smarter and more sophisticated with their attacks, but user training to prepare against advanced phishing, malware injection, and social engineering tactics has not kept up, particularly as users move off of corporate campuses.
- Advanced persistent threats: Advanced persistent threats (APT) are a growing problem wherein attackers take up long-term residence within the enterprise network, as opposed to the quick “smash and grab” attacks of yesteryear. If these threats are not quickly discovered they can linger for weeks or months, often resulting in catastrophic damages over time — ranging from significant loss of intellectual property to complete takeover of the network.
What are some enterprise security best practices?
Some of the most important security measures include:
- Audit regularly: You won’t know how secure your systems are unless you stress-test them and run regular, detailed audits to find your weak spots.
- Data should be protected at rest and in transit: Encryption in storage is no longer enough; data must be secured whenever it is transferred from one place to another.
- Limit access to those who need it: Many breaches occur when blanket access to resources is given to users who don’t need it or when accounts are left active for users who have left the organization. A strong identity and access management (IAM) system limits access to resources to only those who have a genuine need for it.
- Prepare for the worst: Data loss doesn’t just come from malicious attacks; disasters can strike at any moment. Backups must be made and tested for validity regularly.
- Security systems must scale: Security technologies are useless if they can’t keep up with the pace of business workloads. Ensure zero trust policies are in place and technologies such as endpoint security, multifactor authentication and others are scalable with your existing IT infrastructure.
- Plan with compliance in mind: Too many enterprises are caught off guard by emerging privacy regulations; start any business initiative with these regulations in mind.
- Secure endpoints, not just the data center: Work from home arrangements mean the bulk of your enterprise is probably scattered around the world in private homes. Make specific plans to secure the edge with appropriate security solutions, not just the data center and cloud computing resources.
- Educate regularly: Both management and employees need to be regularly trained on security strategies and practical tactics to avoid becoming part of the problem.
What is required for a good enterprise security strategy?
Some of the key elements of a good enterprise security strategy include:
- Alignment between business and technical groups on what constitutes good security practices.
- An understanding of the locations of all the data in the enterprise, whether on-premises, in the cloud or at the edge.
- Elimination of siloed data; a unified strategy that can secure data on the backend and across the enterprise is critical.
- A deep understanding not just of security gaps but of the risks they represent.
- Effective implementation of security strategies, tools and controls.
- An up-to-date, evolving understanding of the active (and changing) threats impacting the industry.
- A training plan that keeps all stakeholders educated about the security strategy.
How do you get started with enterprise security?
Here are the basic steps for beginning your enterprise security journey.
- Establish leadership for the role. In most cases, this involves creating and staffing a CISO position.
- Inventory the locations of all data assets in the organization.
- Assign measurements of risk to each data asset.
- Determine a plan to mitigate each of those risks, prioritized with the most critical and potentially damaging.
- Implement tools to improve the organization’s security posture as a whole. This should include backup and disaster recovery planning.
- Audit third parties with whom you share data, including cloud platforms.
- Develop and implement a training plan to keep staff up to date on your security strategies and policies.
- Audit your overall security readiness and repeat the above steps as needed to improve your security posture and patch any lingering security holes.
An strong enterprise security implementation plan should include a feedback loop to identify and mitigate any gaps.
It’s easy to think of enterprise security as the implementation of antimalware software and strong password requirements, but true enterprise security is much more intricate and encompassing. In today’s business, enterprise security is fundamental to protecting the organization’s most critical asset: its data. Organizations that ignore enterprise security risk are paying the price in the form of compromised systems, loss of reputation and damage to the business.
