Can we afford to lose the master key of our bank locker? We are always over-cautious about the security of our financial assets. Similarly, in the digitalization era, we are controlling our virtual money through mobile banking, internet banking, UPI and more. The changing consumer behaviour has forced the financial institutions to overhaul their IT infrastructure.  

In the digital era, modern financial institutions must adopt innovative IT mechanisms and security in order to ward off data threats. More importantly, access to Privileged accounts, gateway to confidential information, must be robust to mitigate malicious insider activities and anomalous third-party threats. 

Why are Financial Institutions targeted?

Financial institutions like banks, insurance companies, mortgage companies among other financial entities are prone to data breaches. There is a continuous threat to this sector such as financial losses arising from breaches, regulatory penalties along with damage to reputation.

The IT infrastructure vastness and the extent of data sensitivity of this industry have always lured cyber criminals to target this industry for years. 

Financial institutions process, store, and transfer business-critical information and private customer records every day and every hour. This huge and endless process of data accumulation keeps organizations piling on their ‘responsibility to protect data’ every single day. Once compromised, these PII (Personally Identifiable Information) claims a comparatively higher price on the dark web. Thus, this industry is more susceptible to breaches.

What are the consequences?

A couple of years back, an Indian nationalized bank suffered an embarrassing IT security breach where the hackers siphoned off almost Rs. 95 crore. The organization has overcome the loss gradually, but the scar of being in the news for the wrong reasons never fades away. Once organizations face such a cyber catastrophe, the victim might face years of:

• Financial Stress 
• Legal Liabilities
• Compliance Penalties
• Faceloss/ Reputation loss
• Fear of disloyalty from customers
• No more proactive investors
• Stakeholders lack of trust
• Longer revamp of IT security policies

Why is it a challenge for financial institutions?

Our research suggests that cyber attacks against the financial sector increased almost 250% globally between the last two years, with some 80% of financial institutions reporting an increase in cyberattacks during the pandemic. Hence, the severity of cyber vulnerability in the financial sector is quite alarming. There are several reasons behind these whooping figures, but the major among them are

1. More Third-party Service Providers – With the increasing business operations, the IT expansion goes without control and organizations face the challenge of monitoring and controlling all end-users in the network periphery. 
2. Adoption of Cloud Infrastructure – Financial organizations are migrating their data centers and overall IT infrastructure on the IaaS platform for more convenience. However, it invites complex security challenges to ponder over.
3. Lack of Control of Privileged Identities – Too many privilege elevations pose higher risk in a vast IT ecosystem. It results in lack of control and monitoring of the privileged tasks and eventually invites cyber anomalies.
4. Equal Importance to all Regulatory Compliances – Multiple global regulatory standards help organizations to maintain end-to-end security in their IT infrastructure, though many times organizations fail to follow the mandates and invite non-compliance penalties.
5. Lack of Zero Trust Security framework – With the advent of both remote and on-prem work conditions, financial institutions need to have Zero Trust security policy to ensure every access to the critical applications/ systems is verified and tested. Without this framework, proactive security control is not possible.

So, how can we overcome the challenges? What is the solution?

Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution is the best bet

A robust Privilege Access Management solution as ARCON | PAM secures all privileged accounts of financial organizations and helps to protect the information assets proactively. The seamless controlling and monitoring of every privileged access happening in the servers at a granular level limits the moves of a cyber criminal and lowers the chances of security breach. 

The solution offers a centralized engine to govern privileged users where role and rule-based authorization policy, controls and monitors privileged users. 

For IT efficiencies, financial organizations adopt cloud services, although the risks also multiply. ARCON | PAM offers adequate and relevant safeguards when it comes to securing financial assets on the cloud and even on hybrid cloud. The solution creates a robust security shield around privileged accounts in the IaaS environment to prevent illegitimate access and prevent data breach incidents. It reinforces stringent IT security controls by providing a digital password vault, adaptive authentication and dashboard for cloud identity governance. 

In order to manage all the privileged accounts in a financial institution, role and rule-base access is a must. The primary threat always comes from compromised insiders. If business critical applications are accessed without role and rule-based privileges, just-in-time privilege elevation, and revoking privileges after the task is over, then obviously a malicious insider can misuse or abuse sensitive information and wreak havoc. ARCON PAM offers all critical capabilities such as Just-in-time Privileges to target systems, Privileged Elevation and Delegation Management (PEDM), and Granular controls to ensure access is limited and only on ‘need-to-know’ and ‘need-to-do’ basis. 

Financial institutions have to stay compliant to multiple global regulatory standards like EU GDPR, PCI DSS, SWIFT CSCF. As a result, it is always wise to deploy a reliable Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution that helps the organizations to follow the mandates by default and evade chances of any non-compliance penalties.

Lastly, Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) has become the benchmark of a robust security infrastructure in modern enterprises. Financial organizations worldwide are facing increased demand for virtual modes of money management. Most of them are striving to ensure seamless and secure remote access across their IT environment, ARCON | PAM offers best security assurance to the risk assessment team by enabling the ZTNA security framework in the overall IT ecosystem.

Conclusion

Today, IT security teams of the financial sector demand solutions that are more proactive rather than reactive. ARCON | Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution offers a proactive approach to secure privileged access to target systems.

Digital identity theft, in particular, has taken an evil shape where IT fraudsters targeting both businesses and individuals for cyber-attacks. Fraudsters can target an individual for any personal gain like accessing one’s financials and other records. They can also target businesses for stealing confidential information and other business data. Thus, it has become vital for us to address digital identity theft.

But for many, it is still a nascent subject as many don’t know what digital identity theft is, how it works, and how it can affect them. To elucidate the importance of addressing the issues related to digital identity theft, we have created this post where we will discuss everything you need to know about it so that you can protect yourself and your business in our increasingly exposed and connected environment.

What is Digital Identity Theft?

The sudden rise of the internet and e-commerce has taken online identity theft to new levels. Identity theft is all about accessing your personal details online. Now, a fraudster can access your personal information for any purpose. Using the widely available tools on the internet, hackers can trick unsuspecting internet users into providing personal information, which they later use for illicit purposes. The potential for identity theft is a major hurdle in the growth and evolution of the digital world. Digital identity theft can happen in a number of ways but in the majority of cases, the fraudster steals an individual’s personally identifiable information (PII) using scams or activities like planting malicious viruses and software on their system. Personally identifiable information could be anything from bank account number to driving license, social security number, or any other information that can distinguish digital identity.

What is risky about digital identity theft is that fraudsters can make a digital clone of the owner for personal gain. The following are some of the ways how fraudsters can manipulate personal information:

• Rent an apartment or pass an employment background check, using your financial and personal information
• Get medical care using your health insurance
• File income tax return using your social security number and claim your refund
• Make unauthorized purchases using your debit or credit card
• Open a bank account or avail new credit cards or loan using your details

Thus, it is important that you are fully aware of the situation and immediately report any instance where you may feel like your digital identity has been stolen.

Problems Posed by Digital Identity Theft

Fraudsters can profit from your information in a variety of ways. For starters, they can steal your money and other benefits. How fraudsters use your information depends on what information they have. In case the cyber crook has credit card number, address, and name, they can misuse. Moreover, if they get their hands on sensitive information like your social security information, they can file a tax return and steal all your refund, apply for government benefits, receive medical treatment using your health insurance, steal your airline miles, or company data and sell it to the highest bidder.

Identity thieves are most active on the dark web where they expose the stolen information for a price. A dark web is that part of the internet, which isn’t regulated, centralized, or indexed by the search engine. For example, a US passport can sell for up to $2000 on the dark web. The fraudster can sell your credit card number for up to $110, and your social security number for $1 or more.

Last but not the least, digital identity theft can lead to the creation of multiple social media accounts of an individual. The thief, in disguise of the owner, talks to different people and retrieve information. They can also use your fake account to pass a job background check and even rent an apartment. Individuals with no criminal background and a good credit card history are often the targets of the fraudsters.

• Who are the victims?

Cybersecurity experts suggest that the likelihood of experiencing identity theft appears to be higher in women, younger consumers, and people with higher income. Moreover, an individual’s risk of being a victim of digital identity theft depends on how many noncash accounts he/ she has and how often (intensity) they are used. Moreover, it may also depend on where an individual conducts most of his/ her business and the precautionary measures he/ she follows. Since data that directly measure these factors is not available, it can be hard to tell the risks faced by the demographic groups.

• Tools of the trade

If you think that your personal data is safe online, you are wrong. You knowingly share your personal details, including your location via social media and other digital platforms. When you do this, you are putting your information into the wrong hands. Just like us, fraudsters are equipped with state-of-the-art technology and tools that they use to steal one’s personal information. It is vital that you understand what these tools of the trade are so that you can protect yourself.

• Phishing – It is a fraudulent activity where cybercriminals send fake emails posing to be from a legitimate company. The email contains links that lures to click on it and collect personal information. Those are malicious links and are easy access to the personal details.

• Malware – A malware attacks your system to steal your personal information. Cybercriminals can use malware for your system through various means. It includes key loggers, Trojans, spyware, and viruses.

• Poor Passwords – This is one of the common vulnerabilities that people make while creating passwords for banking accounts, social media accounts and other online platforms. Poor passwords are the gateways for cybercriminals to access private information.

• Pharming – Pharming is a cyber-attack where your internet browser is compromised by a virus. In other words, your browser gets hijacked by the hacker, and they can access any saved passwords and account information.

Addressing Digital Identity Theft

This is a growing concern worldwide. Some popular cybersecurity practices can keep yourself and your family’s digital identities safe from hackers.

• How to prevent Digital Identity Theft?
  • Use antivirus software and firewall
  • Avoid using public Wi-Fi
  • Always update your OS and other critical applications
  • Always download from trustworthy sources
  • Avoid emails from unknown senders
  • Avoid visiting suspicious websites
  • Refrain from sharing of personal information digitally

Conclusion

Keeping yourself protected from the cyber goons is not an easy job. However, some best possible IT security practices can minimize the risks to some extent. From business perspective too, securing critical digital assets is the key to business continuity and prosperity.

Overview

The total retail business of the e-commerce industry has been rising steadily during post-pandemic months. Both B2B and B2C segments of the e-commerce industries have observed almost double growth after WFH (Work from Home) became effective worldwide. Simultaneously, this has opened multiple doors of cyber risks. A recently India-based leading online food and grocery store suffered a massive data breach of more than 1 million of private customer details in an unfortunate incident. This has forced the victim to seek assistance from the cybercrime department to minimize the loss as much as possible. This incident prompted the other brands to boost their IT security policies and mechanisms to a satisfactory level.

Why is the risk increasing?

Cyber predators are sniffing treasures from the ecommerce industry during this new normal. While the entire globe is preferring to stay indoors and involved in virtual celebration, almost every individual is depending on online gifting for their nearer and dearer ones. To cash on this rare opportunity, the popular brands are adding extra inventories on their virtual shop to invite more footfalls. However, this boom has led cyber crooks to capitalize online IT security vulnerabilities There is a huge treasure trove hidden behind millions of user data, their personal details, financial details, payment transaction records etc. that are accumulated day in and out.

Identification and elimination of Insider risks

No organization would like to see their name in the cyber news headline due to wrong reasons. Most of the vulnerable areas of an e-commerce organization lie with the payment gateway systems and database management.

E-Retailers of course maintain a robust IT security. They have firewalls, IDS, Advanced Threat Detection and Response tools to keep malicious network traffic at bay.

Also, a mechanism to control Grant and Revoke access to elevated privileges (example MySQL Database) offers a policy-based access control.

However, it is definitely a herculean task to micromanage the user activities of the payment tracking team, database management team, promotional requirements/ marketing team every hour. And a lackadaisical IT security approach can surely result in data breach as unmonitored endpoints and end users pose significant IT threats.

Today identification of cyber threats has transformed into predictive approach rather than preventive measures. It requires monitoring of users’ behaviour patterns and reporting of the tasks performed. Today’s E-retailers require robust solutions such as ARCON Privileged Access Management and ARCON User Behavior Analytics

• Vulnerabilities of Financial Records:

The entire e-retail industry is standing on EPS (E-commerce Payment Systems) to ensure smooth business operations. It authorizes the transfer of funds between buyers and sellers and allows the e-commerce portal to place a request for money from a customer’s bank against the products they have purchased. After a successful transaction, the merchant needs to keep a record of it because in case of refunds, the seller needs to return the amount to the same buyer. These transaction records are stored in highly critical systems which are accessed by users with elevated rights.

To ensure a secured and successful EPS system, end users with privileged rights require continuous monitoring to keep a track of who is accessing which account for what purpose and when. Ideally, malicious insiders are the biggest threat to organizations where access to critical systems is not happening on a “need-to-know” and “need-to-do” basis. Occasionally, (especially during festive hours) extra workforce is brought into action to manage over-burdened regular tasks and many are granted elevated rights temporarily. However, risk aggravates if the rights are not revoked even after the tasks are completed.

ARCON | PAM overcomes these challenges by allowing access only on a “need-to-know” and “need-to-do” basis. With the permission of the IT administrator, the user is granted access on a granular control basis including the now widely adopted method,   “Just-in-time Privilege” to restrict the duration of the activities. Moreover, the solution improves the overall access control mechanism through session monitoring and reporting.

ARCON | PAM solution helps e-retailers to continuously monitor all user activities including privileged tasks. A live dashboard displaying all user activities enables the admins to keep an eye on privileged sessions and identify malicious activities instantly.

• Data Privacy

It is said that data security is the biggest hurdle in the growth of e-commerce. Why? In spite of having sophisticated network security solutions, organizations often fail to ensure legitimate traffic on the Web servers. As a result, they face multiple security threats. Programs that run on a server possess higher potential to malign databases, terminate server software or make unexpected changes in the information if those are malicious in nature. But equally threatening is anomalous end user behavior activities. Identification of risky behaviour profiles and detection of anomalous IT profiles is highly crucial to ensure data security. A stringent and relevant IT security policy can make sure that organization’s IT operations are safe and as per expectation. Poor or lackadaisical policies as to end points and end-users can never ensure a safe IT environment even if there are the best security technologies.

ARCON | UBA enables IT administrators to configure baseline activities on machines as per the centralized policy and identifies users who are deviating from the baseline policies. The advanced and unified enterprise data analytics identifies user-activities based on daily use cases and allows access only if the user has authorization or privileged entitlements.

• Security of Critical Credentials:

From an individual user’s perspective, a strong password secures him/ her from breach of his/ her digital privacy. Furthermore, to strengthen the security, we keep on changing the passwords on regular intervals. Similarly, an e-retailer, at an enterprise scale, needs to secure the sensitive login credentials of all the elevated admin accounts (privileged accounts). Malicious actors might be in disguise among hundreds of insiders, third-party vendors or even business partners (in case of joint ventures) who are frequently logging into those systems for various tasks or purposes. The number of privileged accounts are piling on day by day with the expansion of IT infrastructure. Keeping the business model of the e-commerce industry in mind, even just adding a serviceable city in the list, widens the security gap if adequate measures are not taken by the organization.

ARCON | PAM with the help of a robust Password Vault engine helps organizations to frequently randomize and change passwords credentials automatically. It is hundred times more advantageous over manual control of critical passwords and holds the key to prevent any malefactor in the network periphery.

Conclusion

Every organization, especially in the ecommerce industry, is prioritizing privacy control and IT security infrastructure to ensure best secured services to the customers. Some stray IT and insider incidents put a big question mark on data privacy. The most advanced and best-in-class solutions like ARCON | User Behaviour Analytics (UBA) and ARCON | Privileged Access Management (PAM) can ensure data security and data integrity of E-Retailers.

ARCON is a leading enterprise risk control solutions provider, specializing in risk-predictive technologies. ARCON | User Behaviour Analytics enables to monitor end-user activities in real time. ARCON | Privileged Access Management reinforces access control and mitigates data breach threats. ARCON | Secure Compliance Management is a vulnerability assessment tool.

The ‘villainous’ Covid19 turned to be a great ‘teacher’ for global organizations.

The pandemic, besides badly impacting the global health and disrupting normal business processes, resulted in a wave of cyber-attacks as businesses found themselves in a challenging situation. Remote access, authentication, access management (AM) were some of the issues that kept security and risk professionals on toes as they tried to tread a balance between business continuity and IT security.

In this time of adversity, ARCON continued in its mission to propagate the message – how to ensure cyber resilience and cyber security. We continued to work hard to make our stack of products more robust in terms of security and functionality. In addition, ARCON, being the torchbearer of the intense mission of cyber hygiene, has surpassed several milestones to stand tall among global IT risk-predictive solution providers.

In the last few months, ARCON has added a good number of feathers in its cap to reemphasize its growing traction globally especially among the analysts’ community.

ARCON recognized as a Challenger in 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Privileged Access Management and placed third in the Gartner Critical Capabilities report

After a huge shift of demand from risk-preventive technologies to risk-predictive technologies, Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution has acquired a pivotal role in most of the industries to ensure a robust security of the IT ecosystem.

As mentioned by Gartner, “By 2024, 50% of organizations will have implemented a just in time (JIT) privileged access model, which eliminates standing privileges, experiencing 80% fewer privileged breaches than those that don’t.

 By 2024, 65% of organizations that use privileged task automation features will save 40% on staff costs for IT operations for IaaS and PaaS, and will experience 70% fewer breaches than those that don’t.”

ARCON was placed in the Challengers Quadrant of Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Privileged Access Management (PAM), 2020. We almost knocked the Leaders’ quadrant. We strongly believe that the Privileged Access Management report is a comprehensive guide for global IT security professionals to find out why ARCON | PAM continues to be the best-in-class PAM vendor. The Gartner Magic Quadrant research report evaluates a vendor’s ability to execute and its vision. Likewise, ARCON performed remarkably well in the Gartner Critical Capabilities report for Privileged Access Management, which evaluates a vendor’s ability in terms of key features and capabilities required to meet day-to-day enterprise use cases. We were placed third in the Product and Service Use Cases category for large and mid-size enterprises.

ARCON rated as Innovation Leader

 KuppingerCole Analysts published the “2020 KuppingerCole Leadership Compass for Privileged Access Management (PAM)” report this year and ARCON has been recognized as an Innovation leader by Paul Fisher, the lead analyst. A robust Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution, as revealed by the research firm, has started to experience the highest demand in IT security today. In this ‘new normal’ work scenario, almost all the global organizations are striving for better IT governance to avoid any cyber incident, and PAM is the must-have tool to ensure the best cyber hygiene. Additionally, ARCON was placed as  a ‘Challenger in the product leadership, market leadership and overall ratings.

ARCON enters the Forrester Wave for Privileged Identity Management 2020

In the report Forrester Wave: Privileged Identity Management (PIM), Q4 2020, the lead analyst, Sean Ryan has proclaimed that the major global vendors of PIM provides a unique user experience and address the requirements of cloud, DevOps, bots, IoT and PAM use cases. ARCON is proud to have made into the wave report this year.

CIO Insider has enlisted ARCON as one of the “10 most recommended Telecom Solutions Providers 2020”

Some of the world’s biggest telecom companies trust ARCON | PAM to ensure robust security. Observing the current market trends, CIO Insider has enlisted ARCON as one of the “10 most recommended Telecom Solutions Providers 2020”. The panel of CIOs, CEOs, VCs, Analysts and top editorial teams, has voiced their opinion that ARCON is one of the companies that is “committed in offering the most reliable and high-speed telecom solutions, helping businesses and customers achieve their long term goals.”

ARCON bagged the coveted GEC Award in Dubai

ARCON bagged the coveted GEC (Global Enterprise Connect) Award in 2020 for being the “Top Vendor in Secure Identity Solutions” in Dubai on December 2020. It was the 7th edition of the Awards by GEC Media, organized by ‘Enterprise Channels’, MEA and ‘Business Transformation’ as the official business partner. ARCON takes the pride for being identified as the most deserving brand of the year and this prestigious feat is the proof of determination, dedication and efforts of team ARCON towards enterprise IT security services.

Other NEW Business Associations

ARCON always believes in “Sell the Problem you Solve, not the Product”! This strong belief drives ARCON’s journey. And some of the great organizations continued to repose faith in ARCON. Some of the key acquisitions include:

• A global telecom giant chose ARCON | PAM to secure more than 200,000 devices
• A Major MSP from MEA region secured their distributed data centers with ARCON | PAM
• Top Insurance brand in Sri Lanka trusted ARCON to secure their IT assets
• One of the popular Insurance brand in India opted both ARCON | PAM & ARCON | UBA
• Top brand in Utilities in MEA region opted ARCON | PAM over the rest
• A Government organization from Eastern Europe selected ARCON to ensure secured access policy
• A highly popular bank from Africa chose ARCON | PAM over the rest to protect privileged accounts
• A Popular Insurance brand from MEA region trusted on ARCON to ensure robust IT security
• A non-profit European organization in Europe preferred ARCON | PAM solution for the security of their data assets
• Top financial service provider in India found ARCON as the best-fit brand for their requirements
• Top bank from APAC region found ARCON as the most suitable solution for their need
• A Real Estate giant from MEA region chose to deploy ARCON | PAM
• Top Insurance brand in India selected ARCON | UBA as the most trustworthy vendor to monitor ever user activity

Final Words

ARCON, as always remains enthusiastic and optimistic about growth, is foreseeing a sea of opportunities in 2021 as the world has already turned its eyes towards remote security, user behaviour analytics, zero trust network access and more. (refer to our earlier blog on this forecast) ARCON is a complete IT security package under one roof and global organizations find ARCON as a one-stop solution for protecting endpoints, privileged accounts, and mission-critical applications.

ARCON is a leading enterprise risk control solutions provider, specializing in risk-predictive technologies. ARCON | User Behaviour Analytics enables to monitor end-user activities in real time. ARCON | Privileged Access Management reinforces access control and mitigates data breach threats. ARCON | Secure Compliance Management is a vulnerability assessment tool.

The CEO and CIOs are all engrossed to the digital journey

It’s fascinating to find out how a modern-day CIO and the CEO is ever so deeply engrossed in nurturing a nimble digital ecosystem. With technology advancements offering vivid possibilities in the form of artificial intelligence (AI), Big Data analytics, IOT, cloud computing, blockchain to name a few, the C-level managers, across the world, have upped the ante in the pursuit of building a concomitant digital ecosystem. Business efficiency is at the core as the CIO and CEO seek to deliver robust business models and improve customer and employee experience.

Why are organizations building a digitalized ecosystem?

We live in a much interconnected world, where data flows like water between humans to machines and machines to machines interactions. As this data traverses through a network of devices and applications, endless opportunities have emerged for modern enterprises to transform themselves into a more agile, efficient, innovative business ecosystem. This is possible due to digitalization. With massive streams of data created on a daily basis, the Digital ecosystem has helped businesses to build disruptive business models and overcome one of the biggest business barriers — lack of real-time business information. Indeed, AI, Machine Learning, Big Data analytics, cloud computing, IIOTs, open-data platforms have opened several possibilities for businesses and government organizations to make wiser, better and faster decisions by converting raw-data into more actionable input. It would be fair to say that digital technologies have metamorphosed data into a new-economy fuel.

Digital Ecosystems are revitalizing business enablers

Innovation — Big Data Analytics and Machine Learning crunches and interprets a huge volume of structured and unstructured data from various sources to provide real-time business insights

Efficiency and flexibility– Cloud computing offers scalability to support IT infra and datacenter’s ever-growing requirement for an on-demand capacity

Automation and Cost reduction: Robotic Process Automation enables the business to automate day-to-day tasks and processes, increases accuracy/reduce human error, and saves time

Predictability: AI is enabling new-age organizations to assess social media trends and buying patterns to foretell accurate demand

Agility: Payment gateways, aggregator apps, and e-commerce applications incentivize trade and commerce by bringing together buyers and sellers whilst offering a customized platform.

Managing digital trust is at the core of the digital economy

Things that looked surreal a few years ago are now a reality thanks to the new-age digital economy. Digital technology advancements, in turn, have enabled businesses, communities, government organizations to clock rapid economic growth and prosperity. Further, digital social channels have allowed leaders, brands, communities to forge and blossom personal and professional relationships. Center to all these developments, innovations, and creativity is an availability of real-time data. It’s the data that enables us to make intelligent and quick decisions whilst it has removed the information disequilibrium. Several business models are centered around personal data. It is for this very reason, ensuring the integrity, privacy and sagacity of data will be the cornerstone for managing digital trust.

Digital transformation necessities revitalizing the security fabric

The digital transformation which encapsulates Machine to Machine interactions and process automation of day-to-day tasks is fraught with perils though. With stacks of interconnected devices, sensors, nodes and consoles gyrating inside the digital ecosystem, the pervasive threat to digital infrastructure arising due to inadequate authentication and authorization has also amplified. Needless to mention that the digital journey can stumble if security and risk management leaders and the CIO’s objectives don’t resonate to revitalize the security fabric of the digital ecosystem.

Adopting Digitalization Responsibly by Protecting the Digital Identities

When an organization embraces a gamut of digital initiatives, one notable challenge that transpires is both the number of technology platforms and endpoints with which they interact begins to multiply. The expanding digital infrastructure widens the risk surface. The complexities arise as the end-users and automated processes built to enable the digital journey necessitates the creation of identity types. These identities are then provisioned for a variety of services and functions. However, if there is no scrutinizing of what these digital identities have been doing with the transmitted data inside the digital ecosystem, the very purpose of building a digital experience will never fructify. A seamless digitalization transformation commands data governance, data privacy and data integrity.

Protecting privileged identities is an answer for an uninterrupted digital transformation

In the digital age, the security of digital identity, more importantly, Privileged Identity must be sacrosanct. As these identities are spread across multiple layers of end-users, applications and devices, the sanctity of data could be compromised easily in the absence of adequate security safeguards. Undeniably, securing Privileged Identities are at the core of the Information Security framework. However, there is a growing disconnect between the way organizations scale IT infrastructure amidst the rising pace of digitalization. With ever so high number of data breaches surfacing every year due to compromise of identities, it is quite evident that enterprise security and risk management teams struggle to manage and protect the rising number of privileged identities. This growing disconnect has sparked off a fresh round of debates among security leaders for addressing one of the most burning issues from an IT security standpoint: How to protect privileged identities in a heterogeneous digital ecosystem? As a result, Privileged Access Management, a practice to monitor, control and manage privileged identities is fast gaining prominence to build a robust security framework. A robust security solution like ARCON Privileged Access Management easily integrates with a wide variety of technologies to build a fortress around digital identities. It provides a Unified Governance framework with a secure gateway that ensures every access to critical systems happens only on ‘need-to-know’ and ‘need-to-do-basis’ and implements the principle of least privilege.

ARCON is a leading enterprise risk control solutions provider, specializing in risk-predictive technologies. ARCON | User Behaviour Analytics enables to monitor end-user activities in real-time. ARCON | Privileged Access Management reinforces access control and mitigates data breach threats. ARCON | Secure Compliance Management is a vulnerability assessment tool.

Types of Data and why it is important

Numerous types of data are generated and accumulated in organizations both from outside and internally every day. The amount of data varies according to industry and it continuously changes its volume, shape and pattern. As water is the most essential element of human body for survival, similarly data is the “water” for organizations to survive in business. As we never question the importance of water, similarly the importance of data is never questioned. Organizations consider it to be a treasure which is generally classified as below:

• Financial Data
• Accounting Data
• Sales Data
• Business Contracts
• Customer Information
• Ongoing and Upcoming Project Blueprints
• Employee Details
• Payrolls
• Operations Records
• Other types of Confidential Information

Depending on the industry, this list is apparently never ending. In addition, if we think critically, every data captured, processed or distributed are crucial for any organization. Under any circumstances, this data deserves utmost security to ensure business continuity. If this data is affected by any means, it can lead to huge financial loss, reputational damage or even lock-down of business. Hence, organizations have no other choice apart from taking adequate security measures to prevent any kind of breach.

Why & How Data is Vulnerable?

Today organizations spend millions on evolving technologies, research & development, modern devices etc. but most of the time IT security measures are ignored which secures the business from multiple risk factors. Cyber crooks are always in search of lucrative data which is easy to hack and can be sold in dark web easily. They are getting technologically more advanced who target enterprise network, databases and applications. Most of the time, they pose as barriers to organizations’ overall growth and prosperity. Instances have been found where a single hacker affected more than 40 companies across the globe from retail, e commerce, manufacturing, BFSI and hospitality industry in a span of 2 months time. This shows the extent of damage a hacker can incur to exploit data assets.

Organizations on the other hand are quite oblivious about the importance of data security most of the time. Due to their scant attention, hackers find in easy to dig into the mine of data with their anomalous activities. It is imperative for organizations to start giving adequate attention to the security of inner peripheries and restructure security and control mechanisms to avoid any possible disaster. It is also important for the organization to create an arch over the network which can continuously monitor the user activities and prevent anything suspicious. Simultaneously, upgrading those security measures regularly is also important because the pattern of cyber threats are getting sophisticated day by day.

Bottom line: Data, being the soul of any business, should be protected with robust IT security measures to predict and prevent possible cyber threats before it’s too late.

ARCON is a leading enterprise risk control solutions provider, specializing in risk-predictive technologies. ARCON | User Behaviour Analytics enables to monitor end-user activities in real time. ARCON | Privileged Access Management reinforces access control and mitigates data breach threats. ARCON | Secure Compliance Management is a vulnerability assessment tool.

Data is the most important thing which gets accumulated in our computers, laptops and other devices every day from various sources. We cannever deny the value of data because its mostly irreparable once lost. While OS (Operating Systems) and applications havere-install option, data doesn’t have. It is often classified and sensitive in nature(specially banking and financial details) which forces us to maintain privacy for the same. In addition, our business documents mostly include trade secrets, employee details and confidential monetary files.

IT security experts opine their views on the ways to shield the user data from theft, loss or unauthorized access.

Bring On Risk-Control solutions

There is a say “Prevention is better than Cure!” It is always advisable to take adequate precaution on data security measures rather than working on recovery of the data after theft. The risk-control solutions normally offers a unified framework which figure out the level of chances in network zone. Not only that, the highly important privilege accounts are managed and monitored to keep the malefactors at bay. With proper precaution from breaches, the organization data remains shielded from malicious acts.

Crucial Back-up

This is one of the vital stepsin protecting data regularly.The frequency of taking back-up depends on the amount of data gathering in the system.One can either use backup utility integrated to Windows to carry out basic backup exercises or use Wizard Mode to make the process for creating and restoring backups easier or configure the backup settings manually and set-up automatic backup routines.Irrespective of the program in use, the user should keepat least one copy of the backup at some other place in case of natural disasters which can destroy or damage backup data along with the original one.

Incorporate User Permission

Incorporating user permission on the data files and folders is another convenient way to ensure data safety. The data which is present in network shares, should have share permissions to manage the access of the accounts through the network. To keep your data safe from others, the best step forward is to put in place permissions on the data files and folders. The data present in network shares must have share permissions to manage which accounts can or cannot access the files via network.

Secure Wireless Data Transmissions

All the data transmitted over wireless networks is vulnerable to interception comparing to that of Ethernet network. In order to obtain illegal access to the targeted data, the cyber crooks do not require direct access to the network. They can do it with the help of any portable smart device if the access point is not safely configured. The only way out is to store or sent data on wireless networks with encryption, specially in WPA (WiFi Protected Areas) areas.

Retain Control with Rights Management

Employing Windows Rights Management Services (RMS) can control the recipients in handling their data safely. If there is too much of concern after leaving the computer, then it is better to set rights enabling the recipient for read-only format of the document which can not be edited, copied, or saved. Restrictions can be put on random forwarding of emails and the data can be made to expire after a specific time-period. It will refrain the recipient from further accessing it.

From large retailers analyzing and predicting customers’ purchasing decisions to supply chain firms adopting ‘smart’ technologies to ensure quality controls, disruptive technologies such as big data analytics and the IOTs have enabled firms to capture and effectively use the vital statistics in a real-time.

It has also positively touched our personal lives. Those colorful silicone bands and the ones made from synthetic fiber — omnipresent few years ago as weput on our hands to look ‘cool’ or raise funds for charity purposes—have been gradually replaced by fitness bands that serve as health monitors.

And yes a gigantic amount of information captured by big data and its potential use in modelling infrastructure plans like more efficient transportation systems promises to make cities more futuristic looking ahead.

For modern-day enterprises and government bodies, success hinge on how efficient they are in collating vital information.

Central to all the recent developments is a need to collect the actual data, evaluate it, and make best available decisions.

Data, undoubtedly, is the most valued asset for today’s organizations.It is the engine for growth and innovation.

And that’s why protecting critical data from a possible breach has become one of the biggest challenges as firms risk persistent threats from malicious insiders and external malefactors.

But are we doing enough to secure our digital assets? In this digital era, we are no more custodians of our digital assets. Those vital pieces of information are stored typically in cloud environments, which means that any rogue hacker or state-sponsored cyber attackers can exploit vulnerabilities, if our IT systems are found to be compromised.

A spate of highly successful cyber attacks in the recent past involving banks, an internet company, and government organizations have proved that point.

Likewise, while disruptive technologies like AI and IOTs promise increased productivity and efficiency, under preparedness to deal with rising cyber attacks possibly will lead to a disaster and undercut the advancements.

In this backdrop, it is imperative how we manage and monitor our digital assets. Organizations should maintain an effective identification andideally two-factor verification systems in place. Data centers should be shielded with Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS), Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS), and a host of antimalware software that can prevent execution of advanced threats and will allow us to monitor network traffic. But more importantly, we need to guard against a growing threat of data misuse. Data breach, particularly from privileged accounts or successful DDOS attacks could bring an entire organization to a standstill.

About time organizations of all shapes and sizes realize that investors, in fact all stakeholders, nowadays don’t gauge organizations’ potential through skimming the free cash-flows, business models, and other financial ratios; the ability to withstand a growing numbers of cyber attacks by adopting preventive measures will differentiate winners from losers.

However the evolution of these businesses comes at the cost of rising risks. Analyzing and mitigating the risk factors should take precedence when devising strategies.

Several global studies report the following 10 risks businesses face as of 2016 and beyond:

1. Business Interruption
2. Market Developments
3. Cyber incidents
4. Natural catastrophes
5. Changes in legislation and regulation
6. Macroeconomic developments
7. Loss of reputation
8. Fire, explosion
9. Political risks
10. Theft, fraud & corruption
Evaluating these risks, one can see that they are inter-connected, the starting point of which is Change ending with Business Interruptions. And a majority of the interruptions are caused due to the reliance on digitalization.

A critical aspect to note is that most businesses either have heavily leveraged on technology continuing to invest and innovate or are having their technological innovations and investments growing out of proportions. Most companies areshifting to cloud-based solutions and have devices connected to IoT (Internet-of-Things). With this, the digital footprint of enterprises is growing but so are the risks. This development has led to exponential growth of identities as every device and every application communicate with each other in real-time. The world population currently stands at 7.13 billion and 3.2 billion out of this are internet users. Research shows that on average, a typical digital consumer owns 3.64 digital devices. Further research forecasts that over 50 billion digital devices will be interconnected toIoTby 2020. It can only be noted that such a trend will result in a mammoth billions of user identities in the digital space. These coupled with the lack of understanding and awareness of cyber-risk poses a major challenge for businesses to manage if the scope of internal threat is not mitigated for.

Studies show that over 60% IT stakeholders view cyber incidents to be the future trend increasing business interruption risk.A survey by NYSE Governance Services found that cyber-security is discussed at 80% of all board meetings however only 34% are confident of their respective companies’ ability to defend themselves against cyber-attacks. More worrying is the fact that only 11% of the board have a high level understanding of the risks associated with cyber-security, states reports. It is thereforeevident that the primary driver for now and upcoming decades is cyber threats – born by the constantly rising technological innovations and evolution of theIoT.The outcome — cyber-crimes alone cost the global economy $445 billion a year as per reports.

The hour has come now where it is imperativeto embed automation of the end-to-endrisk managementframework and driveit as a culture within organizations. It is technology now that can protect businesses from interconnected risks created by technology. Automation will help businesses stand the ‘risk’ of times.

ARCON provides state-of-the-art technology aimed at mitigating information systems related risks thereby enabling organizations to comply with Governance, Risk Management and Compliance (GRC) requirements. The company, in particular, is known for its unique Privileged Identity Management/Privileged Access Management solution, which helps deter the misuse of ‘privileged identities’.

Learn more about us at www.arconnet.com

how important is data
data shape is fluid
Data, the most important element in the 21st century is generated in different forms and formats within various organizations. The size and shape of data is very similar to “Water”, it is constantly changing size and shape as it moves from one desk to another and one corporation to another.

While the analogy may be slightly out of context in the real world, but this analogy finds a perfect fit when it comes to securing Data. The question one needs to ask, is it even possible to capture, understand, track the source of a constantly evolving matter such as DATA.

like human bodies are made of water, organizations are made of data
It is said that 99% of human body is made of water. The importance of water can never be debated. If one were to take this analogy and extend it to Data, it cannot be debated that data is the single most important element for any organization such that its survival is dependent on this single element. Let us take a deep dive and understand what are the types of data in any organization?

The following can be a brief description of types of data within an organization Viz: Financial, Sales Lead, Payroll, Employee, Customer Information, projects, contract bids etc this list could continue. If one reviews any organization closely it would not be surprise that every piece of information captured, processed and output stored or distributed would be critical data. Any breach of such data intentionally or unintentionally could lead to disaster including lock down of business. One is surprised how this is currently treated in any organization.

data deserves the due attention!
Data i guess is critical, established beyond doubt. However in this complex business environment as well as the multiple interfaces makes it absolutely difficult to track, monitor and protect the source, data at rest or data in motion.

It is also important to note that Data is generally perceived to be information generated by electronic systems, but that is not true, all information generated including on hard copies i.e paper is Data.

Organizations spend millions protecting devices and technology, however in the coming years security will be DATA centric.

protecting data
identities are important
There are several solutions which now protect databases viz; database firewall, data access management solutions etc. There are several approaches one can follow, however one of the most important approach is to ensure that identities are mapped to all that is generated or stored and these identities are adequately tracked and monitored.

It is important to establish the source where data is generated, modified or is used. Identities play a very important role as they are the identifiers or touch points in any organization. To protect data, it is imperative to create an arc over the identities such that they are identified, controlled and monitored. It is at this stage imperative to map every identity and the biggest hole in identity management is the how privilege identities are managed. Privilege identities are ones that have the unfettered access to all data and could cause the most damage if compromised.

Privilege Identity Management is an area which is still underinvested by corporations across the world and FAITH is still the best control.