Guest Editorial by Michael Canavan, Chief Revenue Officer of TuxCare 

According to a report released by the Ponemon Institute and IBM, a U.S. company’s current breach cost is $4.35 million on average, creating a high-stakes environment for cybersecurity teams.

Malicious hackers are becoming increasingly aggressive in identifying and attacking vulnerable targets and deploying new malware daily. Because of this, businesses are facing unprecedented cyber threats – and for 83% of companies, it is not a question of if a data breach will happen but when.

Unfortunately, the repercussions of successful attacks can be devastating. Hackers can cause irreparable damage to brand reputation and customer relationships, from data breaches to service disruptions.

With threat actors constantly devising new techniques to compromise network security, disrupt critical services, and steal sensitive information, it becomes imperative for organizations to prioritize a holistic security strategy that targets their most vulnerable systems.

But pressures to stay up-to-date on the latest technologies while battling a growing threat landscape often creates a security challenge for IT teams, particularly when they are forced to operate around outdated security systems with limited budgets.

Passive Patch Management Can Be Devastating 

Recent trends have indicated a large shift from discrete targeting to more high-valued targeted attacks where threat actors focus on specific industries to maximize their financial gain.

In a world that seems to be continuously advancing in technological improvements, it is surprising how simple it is for these hackers to succeed.

Thousands of major corporations, national banks, airline systems, and healthcare companies are still operating on decades-old legacy systems that are an easy breeding ground for exploitable vulnerabilities and open back doors.

Because network systems are not often up-to-date, they can lack the necessary threat intelligence tools needed to provide instant insight and prevention capabilities for discovered vulnerabilities.

Instead, vulnerabilities can go unpatched, and security updates left undone for weeks or even months due to the downtime required for such reboots and maintenance. Trying to squeeze in time for manual patch management can cost a company millions a year in downtime.

Patch management has always been a highly disruptive and time-consuming process.

But while patch programs are rarely perfect, they get the job done and are a crucial part of a robust cybersecurity posture.

Security teams and MSSPs face a difficult conundrum when it comes to striking the right balance for patching, as frequent patching translates into more disruptions, but patching less takes on a much higher risk. As a result, companies opt for a more traditional approach that is passive in nature and completely insufficient in today’s dynamic environment.

Solely relying on passive methods means companies must wait for patches to be automatically delivered and manually installed, which can lead to increased delays in addressing critical vulnerabilities.

Leaving systems exposed for a prolonged period broadens the attack surface and places organizations as low-hanging fruit for exploitation.

Live Patching as an Integrated Toolset

Enter live patching to streamline the process significantly. While live patching is a relatively new approach, it works by modifying and intercepting code at runtime without modifying or interrupting the system’s normal operation.

As a result, security teams can ensure that patches are applied automatically to running software systems without disrupting their functionality.

(For maximum security and compliance, enterprises must rapidly patch vulnerabilities, keep production Linux systems updated with the latest fixes, and have a trusted technology partner for Linux support & maintenance always within reach. TuxCare, an expansion of the CloudLinux KernelCare and Extended Lifecycle Support services brands, helps organizations manage support, maintenance, and security for Enterprise Linux systems. Courtesy of TuxCare and YouTube.)

Organizations and industries that run larger mission-critical system environments on Linux have recently become hyper-aware of live patching due to their urgent need to patch serious vulnerabilities more rapidly and frequently.

But unfortunately, the IT community is still largely unaware of how easy this process is to adopt.

There are three prime advantages when it comes to choosing a live patching approach over traditional methods that involve differences in maintenance windows, reboots, and vulnerability windows:

• Timely Vulnerability Mitigation:

  • Proactive patching ensures that vulnerabilities are addressed as soon as patches become available. This significantly reduces the window of opportunity for attackers, minimizing the risk of successful exploitation.

• Reduces Risky Reboots:

  • Live patching eliminates the need for scheduled maintenance windows in which a system can be rebooted or services. Rolling reboots and restarts themselves can be risky and disruptive to an organization’s business and daily operations if forced to shut down temporarily.

• Reduced Downtime and Disruption:

  • Applying live patches minimizes the risk of unexpected system failures, crashes, or downtime resulting from unpatched vulnerabilities. This ensures smooth operations, uninterrupted services, and increased customer confidence.

Consistent patch management is essential for effective enterprise security.

By opting to fight against vulnerabilities through live patching, IT teams can successfully create a more realistic opportunity to mitigate future attacks.

About the Author

Michael Canavan serves as the Chief Revenue Officer of TuxCare, a global innovator in enterprise-grade cybersecurity.

He previously worked at Absolute Software as a Vice President of Enterprise Sales. Michael Canavan attended Purdue University Daniels School of Business.

 

SolarWinds Nominated in Eighth Consecutive ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards Programs

American Security Today’s Annual ‘ASTORS’ Awards is the preeminent U.S. Homeland Security Awards Program, and now entering its Eighth Year, continues to recognize industry leaders of Physical and Border Security, Cybersecurity, Emergency Preparedness – Management and Response, Law Enforcement, First Responders, as well as federal, state and municipal government agencies in the acknowledgment of their outstanding efforts to Keep our Nation Secure.

 

SolarWinds Worldwide (First of Three)

Best IT Access Control & Authentication Solution

SolarWinds Access Rights Manager

• The objective of access control is to reduce the risk of unauthorized access to files, data, and systems and is, therefore, an important component of an organization’s security policy, and effective management is required to achieve compliance. However, access control tasks can be burdensome, resulting in insecure accounts, errors, and a lack of audit documentation.

• SolarWinds Access Rights Manager (ARM) is designed to assist IT and security admins to quickly and easily provision, de-provision, manage, and audit user access rights to systems, data, and files, so they can help protect their organizations from the potential risks of data loss and data breaches. By analyzing user authorizations and access permission, admins get a visualization of who has access to what and when they accessed it, and with a few clicks, customized reports can be generated to demonstrate compliance with most regulatory requirements.

• SolarWinds ARM automates access rights management, analysis, and enforcement by identifying insecure accounts while providing audit trails. It enhances security by monitoring, analyzing, and auditing Active Directory®, Azure AD, Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive, and file servers to see what changes have been made, by whom, and when they occurred.

• ARM helps prevent data leaks and unauthorized changes to sensitive files and data through the visualization of permissions on file servers and simplifies Exchange monitoring and auditing to help prevent data breaches by tracking changes. ARM helps improve compliance and detect unauthorized changes.

• SolarWinds ARM is being widely adopted across DoD and civilian government agencies. It’s available on the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) Schedule and other government contract vehicles.

• (SolarWinds Access Rights Manager (ARM) helps IT and Security Admins meet compliance requirements with centralized provisioning, de-provisioning, management, and audit of user permissions and access to systems, data, and files while protecting their organizations from internal security breaches. Courtesy of SolarWinds and YouTube.)

• SolarWinds ARM enhances security by monitoring, analyzing, and auditing Active Directory®, Azure AD, Exchange™, SharePoint, OneDrive, and file servers to see what changes have been made, by whom, and when those changes occurred, and customized reports can be generated to demonstrate compliance with most regulatory requirements.

• The solution also provisions and deprovisions users using role-specific templates to help assure conformity of access privilege delegation in alignment with security policies.

• ARM helps prevent data leaks and unauthorized changes to sensitive files and data through visualization of permissions on file servers. 

• SolarWinds ARM reduces IT workload through a web-based self-service portal, put access rights of data in the hands of data owners instead of admins.

 

SolarWinds Worldwide (Second of Three)

Best Network Management Solution

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager

• Successful threat mitigation requires continuously monitoring network configuration changes and potential policy violations. Still, this process needs to be automated, fast, and reliable, and continuous real-time monitoring and alerts for automated detection and remediation of harmful security violations is essential.

• SolarWinds® Network Configuration Manager (NCM) provides these benefits—and more. In addition to the “bread and butter” of compliance and configuration management, NCM offers compliance auditing and leverages baselines and differential viewers to help ensure devices are configured correctly. Automated change control workflow, bulk configuration updates, and automatic vulnerability assessments help teams efficiently identify and fix vulnerabilities, all in a single solution.

• NCM offers several unique and powerful features to help agency IT Pros protect against vulnerabilities and prevent unauthorized network configuration changes. NCM uses Cisco® IOS® and ASA vulnerability scanning and NIST FISMA, DISA STIGs, and DSS PCI compliance assessments to improve network security.

• Administrators can manage changes through automated workflows and set up two-level approval policies for configuration updates, helping ensure that only the right changes are made by the right people. Configuration baseline features help standardize compliant configurations and monitor configuration drift. NCM’s change management auditing and real-time change notification features allow administrators to see who made a configuration change and when so they can quickly respond to the change and mitigate the issue if necessary.

(See how you can increase visibility to your network devices with SolarWinds® Network Configuration Manager. Save time and improve network reliability by automating network configuration and change management to reduce configuration errors, recover quickly from downtime, and improve security and compliance. Courtesy of SolarWinds and YouTube.)

• The NCM software features hundreds of built-in compliance reports to help meet major auditing authority requirements, including DISA STIGs, NIST FISMA, and more. Meanwhile, THWACK®, the SolarWinds online user community, provides several free report templates that can be used to prepare for an inspection.

• SolarWinds NCM is used by nearly every U.S. federal civilian agency, DoD branch, and intelligence agency. It is available on the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) Schedule and other contract vehicles.

 

SolarWinds Worldwide (Third of Three)

Best Security Incident & Event Management Solution (SIEM)

SolarWinds Security Event Manager

• Threats to IT networks continue to accelerate and evolve. While enterprising hackers from external sources test the robustness of network security parameters, internal threats from careless and malicious insiders remain a major and ongoing concern.

• It’s critical agencies take steps to combat these threats—and SolarWinds® Security Event Manager (SEM) is a powerful weapon. This comprehensive SIEM solution delivers dynamic, real-time log collection and analysis for immediate and actionable threat intelligence. It can capture and analyze log data from multiple sources and specific incidents in real-time, allowing users to quickly identify and remediate threats, uncover policy violations, and resolve vital network issues.

• In addition, SolarWinds SEM features other innovations not seen in traditional SIEM solutions, including in-memory correlation for immediate threat detection and remediation; USB Defender® technology to help identify rogue devices and enforce USB policies; and unique IT search capabilities for better remediation and audit reporting. SEM includes support for single sign-on and improved management.

(See a brief overview of the capabilities of SolarWinds Security Event Manager (formerly Log & Event Manager), and how you can use the SIEM tool to detect threats, quickly respond to cyber incidents, and report compliance from a consolidated interface. Courtesy of SolarWinds and YouTube.)

• Like all SolarWinds software, SEM is built to scale and can support IT environments of all sizes. It employs a node-based license model that allows users to stay within their planned budgets as they deploy and expand their IT infrastructures across multiple data centers and geographies. A new Workstation Edition license makes monitoring logs from Windows workstations more affordable than ever.

• SolarWinds SEM is used by nearly every U.S. federal civilian agency, DoD branch, and intelligence agency. It’s available on the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) Schedule and other contract vehicles.

• *SolarWinds has been officially recognized with Multiple Award Wins for Seven Consecutive Years – 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, and 2016. Thank you for your continued confidence in AST!

AST is pleased to announce that Steven M. Dettelbach, the Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), has agreed to participate in the 2023 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards Ceremony and Banquet Luncheon as our keynote speaker.

The continually evolving ‘ASTORS’ Awards Program will highlight the trail of Accomplished Women in Leadership in 2023 and the Significance and Positive Impact of Advancing Diversity and Inclusion in our Next Generation of Government and Industry Leaders. Because #MentorshipMatters.

So be on the lookout for exciting upcoming announcements of Book Signing Opportunities and Special Guest Attendees at the 2023 ‘ASTORS’ Awards Presentation Luncheon on Thursday, November 16, 2023 in New York City at ISC East!

(See some highlights of the 2022 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards Ceremony and Banquet Luncheon in New York City during ISC East at the Javits Center. Courtesy of AST and YouTube.)

Nominations are currently being accepted for the 2023 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards at https://americansecuritytoday.com/ast-awards/.

Comprehensive List of Categories Include:

Access Control/ Identification	Personal/Protective Equipment	Law Enforcement Counter Terrorism
Perimeter Barrier/ Deterrent System	Interagency Interdiction Operation	Cloud Computing/Storage Solution
Facial/IRIS Recognition	Body Worn Video Product	Cyber Security
Video Surveillance/VMS	Mobile Technology	Anti-Malware
Audio Analytics	Disaster Preparedness	ID Management
Thermal/Infrared Camera	Mass Notification System	Fire & Safety
Metal/Weapon Detection	Rescue Operations	Critical Infrastructure
License Plate Recognition	Detection Products	COVID Innovations
Workforce Management	Government Security Programs	And Many Others to Choose From!

Don’t see a Direct Hit for your Product, Agency or Organization?

Submit your category recommendation for consideration to Michael Madsen, AST Publisher, at: mmadsen@americansecuritytoday.com.

AST strives to meet a 3 STAR trustworthiness rating, based on the following criteria:

• Provides named sources
• Reported by more than one notable outlet
• Includes supporting video, direct statements, or photos

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