Defense in Depth Security: Stopping the Advanced Cyber Attacks in its Track

Accops
February 17, 2023

Over the past few decades, the digital world has revolutionized itself manifold. Organizations no longer assume that trusted objects only exist inside, and untrusted ones prevail outside their firewall.

The digitized world that we live in today is always open to attacks with potential attackers trying to corrupt the internal network infrastructure with malicious scripts and exploit zero-day vulnerabilities.

Having the right security measure is essential to ward off cyberattacks from infiltrating organizational internal devices and prevent system networks from being compromised. This is where the “defense in depth” architecture plays a vital role.

Definition of Defense in Depth

Defense in depth is a security approach that uses a series of multi-layered defense mechanisms to protect valuable data and systems. If any one of the mechanisms fail, a deeper layer exists to defend your data from unknown attacks. The idea behind this multi-layered approach is, the more layers of security exist, the harder it becomes for an attacker to breach the corporate defense.

Defense in depth is often referred to as the “castle approach in security” because it reflects the layered defense of ancient castles. Medieval castles weren’t just guarded by strong stone walls, they had several layers of defense in their architecture. Before you entered a castle, you were to face the trench, barricades, drawbridge, towers, parapets, amongst others.

Defense in Depth: Why is it important?

Being a multi-layered security architecture, defense in depth helps protect your systems and data efficiently. It uses multi-layered defense to protect your IT infrastructure from various threats such as malicious attacks, cyber espionage, and ransomware attacks.

One of the guiding principles of a defense in depth strategy is that a single-layered security product is not sufficient for cyber protection. Here are some reasons why this mechanism is crucial for network protection:

Multi-factor authentication (MFA): Encourages organizations to encrypt data and protect users through MFA implementation such as biometric authentication, 2FA, etc.
Contextual access control: Achieves business outcomes by matching risks to dynamic business situations involving devices, locations, sensitive data, threats, etc.
Data leakage prevention (DLP): A security measure that stalls malicious attacks, prevents data leakage and obstructs data exploitation by hackers.
Device posture check: Boosts end-to-end security by enforcing correct device posture for users.

Key elements of Defense in Depth Network Security Plan

Behavioural Analysis

This contextual analysis helps to identify trends, patterns, anomalies, and other useful insights into who, what, how, when and why an individual tries to access critical resources. It compares your current user behaviour with past observations of your normal behaviour. If any anomalies are detected, the security systems switch to the Authentication, Authorization, and Auditing (AAA) framework that intelligently limits your access to corporate resources. Meanwhile, it redirects vicious traffic at the backdrop and counters security threats.

Data Isolation

The defense in depth strategy tries to restrict the storage of crucial business information in devices and identifies who has access to the data. For instance, sensitive data like your personal information should have a confidentiality tag and not be stored in any repository which can be accessed easily by anyone. Sandboxing the confidential information in an isolated environment leaves no trace in the endpoint and prevents attackers from misutilizing or leaking sensitive information from becoming public.

IT Infrastructure Security

Knowing the location and priority level of your assets is essential to maintain effective system security within your organization. This includes your access to files and business applications. Having a proper strategy to address cybersecurity concerns is a critical requirement to safeguard business continuity and maintain the integrity of an organization’s technology infrastructure. Adopting a zero-trust security approach is one-way enterprises can ensure all users are authorized to access the requisite resources they seek.

Endpoint Compliance

You can secure your endpoint and restrict unauthorized access to the corporate network and workspaces through endpoint compliance. The right kind of device access can be implemented through a deep device posture check (DDPC) that collects and thoroughly inspects security-related data from all connected devices and allows system administrators to control application access and disconnect hazardous devices.

Network Security Control at Application Layer

Using a firewall is not enough to shield your network and endpoint from online terror attacks. You need to opt for a safe access tunnel, such as zero-trust network access (ZTNA) solution, to securely access your corporate resources swiftly without changing the network or configuration of your endpoint device. Such a solution will not just prevent endpoint vulnerabilities from reaching the internal network but will help you to explore endless opportunities with utmost agility.

Creating Multi-Layer Security with Accops ZTNA & IAM Solutions

Accops HySecure and HyID are the next-gen security solutions to detect and restrict cyber intrusion. These solutions offer zero-trust network access to users blended with secure identity and access management (IAM) through MFA, which uncovers malicious attacks in the system using state-of-the-art analytics.

Accops solutions reinforce the defense in depth paradigm with deep device posture check (DDPC) to grant access to endpoint devices that meet an organization’s security posture norms and block devices exposed to malicious attackers.

Accops ZTNA and IAM solutions create a multi-layer security shield that improves your endpoint security and defenses to prevent and mitigate advanced cyberattacks.