Guest Article by Steve Salisbury
As a security consultant, I have seen many fractured teams and struggled at times to urge the awareness that organisations should combine team resources to ensure one global security solution. With evolving AI-driven cybersecurity threats and multiple attack surfaces, organisations need to ensure their security teams work together, communicate effectively and take a global approach to cybersecurity.
Since the Covid pandemic and the rise of AI, cybersecurity attackers have become increasingly more sophisticated in their use of software to gain access to critical infrastructure and mount large scale phishing, ransomware, malware and spyware attacks.
Many issues for organisations occur due to human error usually through a lack of awareness. A simple click of a link in an innocent looking email can direct the user to a malicious website hosting malware, ransomware and spyware.
Shockingly, the number of companies (over 60%, according to one source I found online) considering moving from traditional, manual security processes to data driven solutions has not changed much in the past 4 years, leaving these organisations floundering in, well, manual cybersecurity processes.
Several factors impact organisation wide implementation of security measures. These can include having separate (and what seem to be often opposing) budget priorities for each team, a lack of communication about solutions that can be shared between teams, and a lack of global organisational strategy to ensure infrastructure security in all countries is consistent.
When considering security, it is evident that each sector of an organisation chooses, budgets and implements their own solution in their endeavour to reach the optimised stage of a Security Compliance Maturity Matrix. By segregating tools used by DevOps and SecOps teams, companies may reach optimisation for individual teams but fail to optimise the entire organisation globally.
The Growing Cybersecurity Challenge for Critical Infrastructure
With the advent of the cloud, many companies migrated their infrastructure, though key security platforms had not evolved enough to secure sensitive data, which led to data leaks and many companies regressing to their on-premises systems, or using a hybrid approach.
Throughout the pandemic I personally spoke with many organisations who completely removed all cloud deployments due to the increasing cost of cloud-based infrastructure and a lack of knowledge within their teams to deal with cloud-based best practices and security issues. One of the main issues was that they could not secure systems which hosted their customers and partners, and the complexity of managing cybersecurity in the cloud meant that some of these organisations were either about to lose – or had already lost – some customers.
As human error remains one of the leading causes of cyber incidents, a solution is required to minimise the impact of human fallibility. Many organisations overlook the fact that social engineering is one of the leading causes of breaches to infrastructure and do not put enough emphasis on securing their employees’ or remote contractors’ endpoints.
How Protective DNS Safeguards Your Network
PDNS is the first line of defence providing approximately 92% protection against cyber threats. Working at the network level, it blocks access to known malicious domains and websites, protecting employees from accidentally connecting to harmful content.
As there is no global software deployment required on each individual device, PDNS is easy to manage across complex networks. The simplicity of the solution ensures that organisations can deploy rapidly and start seeing the benefits immediately.
By blocking malicious traffic at the DNS level, PDNS secures devices and networks from cyber threats, reducing the risk of network penetration, either through direct attacks or human error. Added to the fact that PDNS can be integrated with zero-trust security models, it ensures an additional layer of protection by verifying the legitimacy of each DNS request and provides network traffic insights allowing security teams to identify and mitigate potential threats more effectively.
Real-World Success: Whalebone Immunity in Action
Whalebone Immunity is a leading PDNS solution that has been deployed globally by organisations across various sectors to enhance their cybersecurity posture. It is recognised as a leading European cybersecurity provider and has been entrusted by the European Commission to lead the DNS4EU project, a testament to their expertise in the cybersecurity field.
There are two notable case studies, from the Slovak railway company and Panasonic, which caught my eye as to the effectiveness of Whalebone Immunity. Both point out the immediate real time network protection, including zero-day attacks, and the seamless integration, which is a must for all security teams.
Key Benefits for the Slovak Railway Company
- Ensured uninterrupted service across 1,500 train routes and 698 stations
- Secured office/remote and in-the-field teams at the network level
- Deployed and integrated smoothly with existing VPN and firewall systems
- Neutralized malicious traffic in real time
- Stopped unauthorized activities like cryptomining and gaming
Key Benefits for Panasonic
- Implemented seamlessly – including six virtual servers – in under a day
- Enhanced security integrated without interfering with operations
- Immediate real-time network protection against malicious threats (including zero-day attacks) for both office and remote teams
Whilst these are just two examples of the effectiveness and speed of deployment of Whalebone Immunity, there are many more testimonials than most C-level and management would probably have time to read through, I know because I did! But these are great illustrations of the power of Whalebone and the real-world impact of protecting your critical infrastructure through PDNS.
Actionable Takeaways for Cybersecurity Professionals
By considering the benefits of PDNS and exploring leading solutions such as Whalebone Immunity, organisations can significantly improve their security posture and mitigate the risks posed by today’s sophisticated cyber threats.
Key takeaways for cybersecurity professionals:
- Understand humans are the weakest link in any security chain.
- Become proactive and focus on preventing threats from reaching your network.
- Evaluate and implement advanced PDNS solutions that offer comprehensive protection, ease of deployment, and actionable insights.
- Utilise a solution that can continuously monitor the threat landscape and adapt your security strategies.
- Think globally and step out of the mould to ensure all teams are working together to make the entire organisation optimised.
By globally enhancing your cybersecurity posture and continuous compliance, security awareness and adherence at all levels is maintained. Comprehensive coverage across geographies, technology stacks, and functional processes and policies is optimised, and superior measurability enables ongoing optimisation and automation of compliance.
Leading solutions such as Whalebone Immunity also help organisations comply with regulatory requirements by reducing the risk of cyber threats, ensuring high availability, integrating seamlessly with existing infrastructure, and aligning with global cybersecurity regulations. These factors combined with fast deployment, quantifiable results and low false positives, are consistently validated by Whalebone’s customers, proving the effectiveness of the solution.
About the author
Steve Salisbury is an IT professional and AI enthusiast with over 30 years of experience working with cybersecurity, eLearning production, programming, and various software and hardware solutions. He is skilled in product marketing, solution engineering, sales and partner enablement, and is proficient in generative AI, with certifications in text, image, and video/audio creation. You can find Steve on LinkedIn.