It's week 4 of the cyber security awareness month and this post will be focusing on the  Future of connected devices.

Devices are becoming more sophisticated and are having a bigger impact on our daily lives, especially with IoT in play. Devices will be hotspots for data, both personal and professional. As we increasingly depend on more devices and apps to manage our personal and professional lives, they will invariably become hubs of information like an individual's health data, financial data, and personal data like DoB. This makes connected devices a huge target for attackers. Attackers can commit crimes such as intellectual property theft, identity fraud and sabotage by hacking into devices.

Here are some best practices to secure your devices and with them, important data:

1. Remember the basics - update and secure:

You need to be up to date with all possible security vulnerabilities and be aware of the measures to be implemented for preventing cyber security attacks on your data. Make sure the employees in your organizations are also security smart.

• Devices which run on older or obsolete versions of operating systems, and those which use older or unpatched versions of software can be easy targets for cyber attackers. Always ensure they are updated.
  

• MFA options like biometrics, OTP, etc., besides passwords to access data and apps on the data, are a second line of defense to bolster your systems. 
  

• Ensuring compliance to regulations like the GDPR, SOX, and PCI DSS is more important than before especially with cyberattacks rising steadily over the past few years.
  

2. Tighten access controls

Dynamic Access Control makes it possible to set up additional checks to allow access to apps that have critical or sensitive data, by using a combination of factors like:

• Device from which access is requested - configured device, company issued device, personal device, etc may not all be equally secure.
  

• Time at which access is requested - business hours, non-business hours, holidays, etc.
  

• Location from which the data is accessed - within or outside the office premises, geolocation, etc.
  

• The role/designation of users who request access - a C-suite executive, or a privileged user account being used to access a sensitive data.
  

3. Leverage latest technologies like UEBA for continuous monitoring of access patterns

Activities of users, like access and other operations performed on devices and applications, in the IT environment have to be continuously monitored to detect anomalies in activity patterns. For example, an unusual increase in the failed login attempts to servers housing important data, at an unusual time, could mean that an attacker is attempting to access the data and the IT security team should be immediately notified.

4. Have a mandatory and fail-safe contingency plan

Establish a clear-cut set of action and protocols that must be auto-launched whenever an anomaly, high risk access or a specific event is detected. It is therefore important to not just alert the concerned personnel, but also launch a first line of defense or protective measures to ensure the damage cause is minimal or none in case of an attack. For example, if an unusually huge volume of customer data is being copied, even if it is by an authorized user, the access can be temporarily blocked, and not restored until the action is verified.

ADManager Plus provides simple, script-free solutions like the ones listed below for securely managing the Active Directory in this fast evolving security landscape.  

• Comprehensive Identity and Access management. Learn more.
  

• Permission and access management for file servers, shares etc. Learn more.
  

• Built-in reports for inventorying the servers and workstations, OS-wise to ensure all systems are updated routinely. Learn more.
  

• Purpose built solutions for locked out user and computer accounts. Learn more.
  

• Scheduled reports for insights on user login hours, access permissions, etc. Learn more.