The world of networks and clouds has never been so complex. Since data is the key to a successful business, you don’t have any option but to store humongous but sensitive data in your network infrastructure. But this is not the worst part. Blunders that businesses commit are to take cybersecurity lightly. They don’t put sufficient efforts into securing their gateways, leading to breaches, privacy attacks, data thefts, and whatnot
To make it worse, users, being aware and scared of the increasing cybersecurity threats, are no longer interested in sharing their personal info. This means businesses have a hard time gathering first-hand data to improve their service quality, which in turn leads to deteriorated business outcomes.
Therefore, it’s about time businesses start prioritizing Cybersecurity Architecture. It’s the only way to ensure reasonable security and provide tangible privacy to your users’ data.
In this blog, you will discover more about cybersecurity architecture in detail: what it is, its features, importance, phases, business objectives, and lastly, career scope. But we will start with top cybersecurity threat trends to better understand why you need one in the first place.
Time to dig in!
Top cybersecurity threats trends to be aware of
The emerging digital ecosystem is growing into a bizarre state where the degree of evolution is directly proportional to the level of threats. Here are a few ways unethical hackers and breachers are causing a ruckus with cybersecurity threats.
AI and ML becoming big pieces of equipment for cyberattacks. Hackers are using AI and ML to build smart malware and attacks that qualify through the toughest of security protocols.
Also Read: Best Cybersecurity Trends That Will Dominate in 2024
Mobile devices are the newest sources of breaching. Smartphone viruses can capture basically everything stored on your smartphones: banking passwords, emails, pictures, messages, chats, and everything else. Research by Lookout reveals 2022 witnessed the maximum number of mobile data attacks in history.
Phishing is still hackers’ favorite way of attacking. Phishing helps hackers exfiltrate data and spreading malware. It is often combined with ransomware and then used to breach big organizations’ security gateways.
Business email compromises (BEC) are rising. Trellix found out that 78% of business email compromises involved fake CEO emails using common corporate jargon. Interestingly, this technique sometimes also includes voice phishing or vishing by confirming direct phone numbers. BEC is becoming a popular threat source since it needs to build any external infrastructure.
Identity theft is for real. As we are networking more, connecting more, and sharing more, we are becoming more and more vulnerable. Gathering information is a breeze for these hackers as we share our details every day. How many times we don’t even remember the count. FTC data shows that 2022 saw a whopping 30% increase in identity theft cases.
What is a cybersecurity architecture?
Cybersecurity architecture defines your organization’s security measures to save your network, digital assets, and information systems from cybersecurity threats. It’s a framework of policies, processes, and tech to address your IT ecosystem and data app’s security concerns.
Know More: Preparation Guide on SC-100:Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect
It usually involves numerous layers of defense. These can be firewalls, intrusion detections, prevention systems, access controls, monitoring tools, encryption, etc. These elements work together to identify and respond to cybersecurity threats. You may also have to establish roles and responsibilities for your IT security teams and define incident response and disaster recovery processes.
Additionally, a cybersecurity architecture ensures that no organization loses its critical info assets to cybersecurity threats. They help you maintain compliances that align with the state’s cyber laws and norms.
You will find a few common elements in every architecture. This may include:
- Internet of Things or IoT
- Cloud
- Networks
- Endpoints
- Mobile, and so on.
Why do you need a cybersecurity architecture?
The main purpose of cybersecurity architecture is to give complete 360-degree protection to your company’s critical assets and sensitive info stored in your network. A thoughtfully-implemented cybersecurity ecosystem will help you improve your organization’s cybersecurity and adhere to data privacy norms. Which, in turn, will boost your marketability in an ever-rising cyber-aware world.
If done right, it will benefit the three prime avenues of your business. They are:
Regulatory compliance
A cybersecurity architecture helps you align with data protection regulations. Organizations, especially those in international business, must comply with countless data regulation needs.
While each regulation has a unique info management need, a strong architecture will help you rise above those differences and ensure a strong protection fort.
Improving bottom line
A well-implemented architecture will help you gain consumers’ confidence. Business transparency will always attract customers’ trust, especially those who have already been prey to cybersecurity threats.
Moreover, it will also act as a fort and protect your business from disruptions that affect overall business results. Always remember that building a full-fledged cybersecurity infrastructure will always cost less than recovering from data loss scenarios.
Information management
The gap between success and failure relies on how your business deals with data. The architecture here helps you escalate by streamlining data with the management process while adding security to your system’s network.
Features of a cybersecurity architecture
- Risk assessment
A cybersecurity architecture starts with analyzing risk to identify threats and vulnerabilities to your digital assets.
- Defense in depth
You need to implement a layered defense approach, including various security levels for controls and safeguards, ensuring overlapping protection.
- Access controls
Access controls help limit access to digital assets. It’s a concept based on the principle of least privilege, which means users are allowed only those resources they need to perform their task.
- Monitoring and analysis
A cybersecurity architecture includes tools to manage system logs, monitor network traffic, and perform other security-related data activities to detect anomalous activity.
- Incident response
It involves processes to detect, report, and respond to security incidents.
- Encryption
You should always encrypt sensitive data at rest and in transit to prevent unauthorized access.
- Physical security
Physical access controls help prevent unauthorized physical access to IT infrastructure.
- Training and Awareness
Deploying a cybersecurity architecture doesn’t end your work. You must give your team regular training and awareness to help them realize why cybersecurity is crucial and what their role is in safeguarding the organization’s data assets.
Some other essentials for cybersecurity architecture
- Covering external threats
27% of cybersecurity threats come from external sources. Enable your security apps to prevent actions like denial of services, phishing, malicious mail attachments, etc.
- Covering internal threats
Insider attacks are neither new nor surprising. Internal threats include misconfiguration, substandard employee choices, bad actors, etc. Your security team should know how to keep an eye out for and solve any kind of cyber attack.
- Consolidated solutions
Running a business can be complicated, so finding clever ways to handle security threats is important. The cybersecurity setup should work well with your other security apps and boost efficiency.
- Security analytics
Your cybersecurity setup needs to have security analytics at its heart since it helps figure out your organization’s security posture. Use real-time insights into breaches to detect and solve any potential incidental threats.
Phases in cybersecurity architecture
The process involves four critical phases.
- Architectural risk assessment to determine the degree of sensitivity and criticality of corporate data and how prone it is to a cybersecurity threat
- Architecting a secured ecosystem to support corporate risk exposure
- Implement, and manage in-house security services and procedures. The actual run-time deployments should align with security standards and policies, architectural security needs, and risk management.
- Controlling and monitoring cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities and defining the ins and outs of operational efficiency of the system security.
A comprehensive approach to creating a cybersecurity architecture
Organizations often use innumerable security solutions from all sorts of vendors. Sadly, it actually makes things a lot more complicated and potentially less secure. Plus, it ends up costing more money in the long run.
Therefore, instead of diving into a million different solutions, you should take a more holistic approach when building your architecture. In other words, focus on creating a consolidated security architecture with multiple layers of protection that align and work together seamlessly. This will help you close any gaps in your security, reduce risk, and boost operational efficiency.
How long does it take to build a cybersecurity architecture?
Numerous factors determine your time to build a scalable and agile architecture. It relies on the size and complexity of your business, the scope of data, and level of protection you want, and so on.
However, for small businesses with simple needs, you might just need to put together a basic ecosystem, which takes weeks or months. But for large enterprises with advanced requirements, you need anywhere from 5-6 months to a year to deploy a consolidated and holistic architecture.
Besides, remember that your work doesn’t end with simply putting architecture in place. It’s an ongoing process wherein you must ensure that the ecosystem is updated, maintained, and able to detect threats at scale and troubleshoot them. Therefore, allocate the required time and resources to ensure the frictionless running of the infrastructure.
The business scope of the cybersecurity architecture
Your architecture must align and best fit your business objectives. For example, as a business leader, you must first dive deeper into the present state of your organization’s IT security. You can do this by reviewing company assets like hardware, software, business plans, security policies, strategies, etc. This will help you understand the critical data your business needs to store and the info it needs to remain operational even when it faces an incidental threat.
Second, as a security leader, make sure you have a 360-degree view of the organization’s data and IT assets and the vulnerabilities they hold. Meet with business units and determine each asset’s vitality, keeping business operations in mind. Also, compute beforehand how much time and money your business needs to replace an asset if it gets compromised or hampered in a cyberattack.
In turn, this will help your team and top-level management understand which IT asset is the most crucial and needs first-hand protection and how much you need to invest to ensure maximum protection.
Security leaders must then meet with the organization’s business unit to evaluate collected data and appreciate the importance of each IT asset in business processes based on the time and resources needed to replace it if it becomes unavailable due to a cyberattack. This allows management to understand each IT asset’s importance and dedicate the required budget to protect the most critical components needed for the business to continue operation in the case of a cyberattack.
Career scope in cybersecurity architecture
You will find many opportunities in security domains, specializing in network, app, and data. You will implement and maintain security controls to secure critical data and company assets from cybersecurity threats.
In addition, you can also upskill for the roles of incident responders and forensic analysts. They deal with incidental threats and identify the cause, gather evidence, and prevent similar occurrences in the future. You can also explore roles like risk assessors, compliance officers, penetration testers, security trainers, etc.
A few certifications to get you skilled in cybersecurity architecture
Certified Ethical Hacker – CEH
CEH is a program in InfoSec Cyber Security that validates your skills as an ethical hacker. This cert teaches you how to leverage ethical hacking techniques to detect various attacking methods and prevent them from happening. You will also learn the various phases of ethical hacking, implementing countermeasures against cyber attacks, etc.
CompTIA Security+ (SY0-601)
The CompTIA Security+ course validates your core and advanced security skills. This course can be the perfect stepping stone for beginners who want to start a career in Cybersecurity and learn how to build a cybersecurity ecosystem in an organization.
Certified Information Systems Security Professional – CISSP
CISSP covers areas like access control systems, business continuity and disaster recovery planning, physical security, operations security, and more. It helps you build a career as a security expert and analyst.
Read More: 10 Best CyberSecurity Architect Certifications in 2024
Cisco Certified CyberOps Associate
The Cisco Certified CyberOps Associate cert validates skills needed by Security Operations Center (SOC) teams to detect and respond to cyber threats on a daily basis. It focuses on security concepts, monitoring, analysis, policies, and procedures, covering host-based and network intrusion analysis.
Summary
This blog helps you understand the importance of thoughtfully-implemented cybersecurity architecture in times of ever-increasing cybersecurity threats. However, building an ecosystem is not the end. You need a team and professionals who can efficiently handle apps and tools and keep sensitive data free of thefts and threats.
Whizlabs offers numerous certifications and training programs that help gain a deeper understanding of cybersecurity and cyber attacks. You will also find sandboxes and hands-on labs to discover more about real-world cybersecurity challenges. Wish to learn more? Reach out to our consultants today!
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