“Business thinks IT has a crystal ball, but the truth is the CISO doesn’t always know what’s going on.”
That was the conclusion of Paul Furtado, VP analyst at Gartner, speaking at MES IT Security in Indianapolis this week.
There are some persistent security challenges - the skills gap, shadow IT, hybrid work - but Furtado focused on the newest threats facing security teams in 2023, along with an action plan to address each one.
#1: Expanding perimeter
While attacks are evolving, one of the biggest threats today is the expanding perimeter/attack surface.
Furtado pointed out that security regulations "don't differentiate between cloud, on-prem or SaaS - they just care about the data."
Action plan
- Perform attack surface gap analysis - "A regulator's not going to give you a free pass because you say, 'I didn't know we were using that application.'"
- Evaluate attack surface management technologies to visualise external digital footprint.
- Consider pen testing, breach simulation, etc to provide regular assessments.
- Test your response.
While most people - including Furtado, later in his presentation - recommend bringing business and IT together, he recommended keeping conversations about responses to a security separate.
"As soon as you start talking tech you've lost the board, and once you start talking about cyber insurance and marketing you've lost your tech team.
"It's the same scenario but two different people."
