Why your business needs to adopt a multi-layered security approach

Attention all business leaders! Cyber threats are becoming increasingly sophisticated and pervasive in today’s digital age. That’s why enterprises must take a multi-layered approach to security to protect their valuable assets from cyber-attacks.

A multi-layered security system incorporates various security measures at different levels, making it more difficult for hackers to penetrate all layers and access sensitive information. A modular security approach also allows flexibility and scalability in responding to new and emerging threats.

Investing in multi-layered, modular security services is crucial to safeguarding your business against cyber-attacks and ensuring the continuity of your operations. Don’t wait until it’s too late to protect your assets – prioritise security today and give your enterprise the peace of mind it deserves.

Expanding threat landscape is a big concern

Cyberattacks are increasing – they are more complex and expensive than ever. According to a recent report by the Ponemon Institute, 83% of organisations studied said they had had more than one data breach. The average time to identify and contain a data breach is 277 days.

A multi-layered security approach is a proactive one that puts up barriers designed to make the attack surface more challenging to navigate. The various layers work together to strengthen overall security, making a breach less likely than one with a single security component while increasing the chances of any threats being exposed before they cause significant damage.

To work successfully, however, a multi-layered approach demands that all the components work together to defend the infrastructure. This demands a multi-layered security strategy that maximises security protection across the layers.

Here are seven points that should be considered as part of an effective multi-layered security strategy:

1. Protect endpoints to ensure a secure modern workplace. With the increased adoption of hybrid working and IoT, more endpoints are continually being added to the infrastructure, opening vulnerabilities. It is essential to safeguard them using endpoint security, providing visibility and protecting these entry points on the network or in the cloud.
2. Adopt a zero trust approach that operates on the never trust principle, always verify. It demands users continuously reauthentication their identity to access data and resources. As well as lowering breach risk and detection, it provides greater visibility into network traffic and better control over cloud estates. Micro-segmentation enables organisations to better apply this principle to very sensitive data by reducing the size of the landscape.
3. Every organisation should be on its Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) journey, designed to converge network and security requirements. By 2024 at least 40% of enterprises will have an explicit SASE strategy in place, according to Gartner. SASE helps to reduce costs and complexity while bolstering security. A critical capability of SASE is Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), which provides secure remote access to an organization’s data, applications, and resources based on clearly defined security control policies.
4. Organisations that do not want to jump into a fully converged SASE world are advised to adopt Security Service Edge (SSE), a vital part of SASE’s security pillar. SSE comprises three core features; secure web gateway (SWG), cloud access security broker (CASB), and zero trust network access (ZTNA) framework. SEE allows organisations to apply adequate security control to their users’ connectivity, no matter where they are located, providing enhanced security facilities and visibility. Again, for SSE to work effectively, all the components must unite.
5. Building strong layered defences using detection and response is essential to detect and notify security teams if an unknown entity has entered one of the layers. Detection and response provide complete visibility of the infrastructure. Without it, a cybercriminal could sneak into the infrastructure and be there for months undetected.
6. It takes people as well as tools to make multi-layered security run effectively. But, an ongoing cybersecurity skills drought makes it almost impossible to build a consistent team of cyber defenders who are up-to-date with the ever-changing threat landscape. The answer is a trusted external security partner with the knowledge and solutions to provide 24/7 protection. Cybersecurity technology is evolving fast, so working with a partner working with best-in-class, continuously innovating vendors is essential. This partner should be able to automate service delivery and provision in a simple and scalable way.
7. Enterprises that do not know what their security posture is, or can pinpoint where work needs to be done, should take a security maturity assessment to build a picture of where they are now, where they need to be – and create a strategy for how to get there.

Getting cybersecurity right

Investments in hardware, software, and services related to cybersecurity are forecast to hit nearly $300 billion in 2026, driven by the ongoing threat of cyberattacks, the demands of providing a secure hybrid work environment, and the need to meet data privacy and governance requirements. Despite healthy budgets, however, cybersecurity is still failing. This is often down to incomplete inventories of assets and endpoints, a lack of proactive, preventative measures, and inefficient monitoring.

A mature cybersecurity strategy demands a multi-layered approach based on protection, detection, and response. Digital business today is everywhere; your security should be the same to mitigate cyber risk.