The Changing Landscape Of Work And The Evolution Of Cybersecurity Technology
CyberSecAsia.Org
Series Webinar / Conference on Cybersecurity, DevSecOps, Cloud-native, Opensource, PAM, IAM, ZeroTrust, Ransomware, etc
The world of work is always evolving to keep up with technological advances and increase worker productivity. We saw this with the rise of cloud adoption and distributed workforces, which ushered in a new era of cybersecurity technologies in secure access service edge (SASE). SASE enables secure access to any application, any user, in any location—a big pivot from the days when all work was done in an office that was hard-wired to a local data center.
As the modern workplace continues to evolve, so too must the world of cybersecurity technology. Several trends present new challenges for protecting access to sensitive workloads and data. Companies must adapt their cybersecurity strategies to meet these demands while ensuring worker productivity and top-notch security.
Personal And Unmanaged Devices Being Used For Work
As more workers are on the go and using web browsers as their primary workspace, it's fueling the growth of personal and unmanaged devices being used for work. Today, we're seeing most organizations allow employees and contractors access to business applications from their personal devices—sometimes leading to ransomware compromises. Personal devices pose a huge cybersecurity risk to companies because they lack safeguards and corporate security measures.
To mitigate these risks, companies should adopt a zero-trust approach by using SASE technologies that integrate network security technology and browser-based security capabilities. Companies should also start requiring workers to use a secure enterprise browser that can help control and monitor sensitive company data accessed on personal devices, ensuring it all stays secure.
An enterprise-grade browser can give companies peace of mind, knowing workers are getting secure access on any device, unmanaged or managed, to access any business application in any location—and knowing their business data isn't being misused.
The Proliferation Of AI Tools
Thousands of productivity-enhancing AI applications are available, from virtual assistants to data analysis tools. Workers are using them for any conceivable task—writing better software, accelerating scientific research, quickly converting ideas into actual designs, creating press releases and blogs and so on.
According to a September 2023 Salesforce survey, 75% of workers are looking to automate tasks and use GenAI for communications, and a December 2023 Veritas Technologies survey found that 57% of employees already use GenAI regularly for work.
The problem is that this convenience comes with risks, as these tools require input or data to perform their tasks. After all, you can't perform data analysis without the data. When the IT team is unaware of which GenAI apps are being used and what data is being uploaded, we end up with "Shadow AI" app usage. With no visibility and no controls, IT is unable to apply risk mitigation efforts to stop the potential leak of sensitive data or protect against malicious responses the GenAI apps serve.
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This leads to data security risks and creates security blind spots. Consider this a growing risk, as a November 2023 Salesforce survey found that more than half of employees use unapproved GenAI apps without permission or access controls, and a June 2023 LayerX report found that 15% of employees paste company and customer data into GenAI applications.
To protect against these emerging risks, companies need to gain visibility into employees' GenAI usage and have appropriate access controls. This means ensuring that only approved AI apps are used, that sensitive data is protected and that the responses from GenAI to the user are safe (not malicious).
The Escalating Threat Landscape
The scale, speed and sophistication of attacks are on the rise, with AI acting as a threat multiplier. As phishing attacks and ransomware become more complex, it becomes nearly impossible for the average employee to identify these risks effectively. Companies cannot rely on employee vigilance as a cybersecurity strategy; instead, they should assume that bad actors will successfully wage more attacks on employees.
At Palo Alto Networks, for example, we block 11.3 billion attacks inline every day; of those, 2.3 million are new and unique attacks that have never been seen before. That's huge, and it's only growing. To combat this, companies must enhance their cybersecurity frameworks with advanced detection and response protections. Cloud-delivered security services can prevent the latest threats in real time, often with protections built directly into SASE solutions.
The real secret sauce here is the AI that provides even better security against AI attacks. However, your AI solution is only as good as the data feeding into it. To get the full benefits of AI, your AI cybersecurity solution must be fed a rich diet of diverse datasets from different sources. Vendors with more points of presence in the network will have access to a wide variety of data. This will give your AI toolset a holistic view of the landscape so it can learn from these different sources and quickly identify anomalies to give you better detection and faster response.
Embracing The Future Of Work—Securely
The way we work continues to evolve, and our security approach must evolve with it. The adoption of personal devices for business use, the rise of AI apps and the growing scale, speed and sophistication of attacks necessitate a more integrated and proactive cybersecurity strategy.
Layering multiple security controls from a secure enterprise browser to the network offers protection against a wide range of threats. Through a comprehensive SASE solution that includes an enterprise browser, AI-powered cloud-delivered security services and AI access controls, companies can be better positioned to lean into the future of work while remaining protected against the growing threat landscape. This approach can also give your IT teams and your end users a better user experience.
As we look to the future, the most competitive companies will be the ones embracing innovation and adopting new technologies—but they must do it securely.