Our dependence on our IT platforms and the need to secure them is a non-stop challenge.
This challenge continues at a fast rate as organizations address an increasing number of complexities from hybrid working, migrations to cloud workloads and SaaS based applications to name but a few.
All of this has increased the demands on both IT and Security teams. Yet, these teams are already overstretched. When you add the current economic headwinds, there is pressure and encouragement from the executives to do more with less. Breaking points are being reached and something will have to give; systems will go down, there will be operational impacts and cybersecurity incidents are a matter of when and not if.
So can more be done with less for both IT and Security teams? Can efficiencies be achieved without operational impacts leading to improved productivity? The answer is yes and can be easily achieved through the right tooling which provides this type of automation.
When it comes to addressing secure configuration and device hardening, collaboration is required between security and IT teams. Security needs continuous visibility on all devices to identify misconfiguration security gaps. IT needs to perform the relevant remediation actions to reconfigure the misconfiguration and then validate that the risk has been removed or reduced at best.
Tackling remediation for secure configuration and device hardening are managed as projects in organizations. These projects last at least a few months in duration to address a misconfiguration issue and require a team from project managers, architects, secOps, IT Admins etc.
So why is such a large team required? The typical answer is that these types of remediation projects which require re-configurations require a lot of manpower and discussion due to the potential impact of changes and hence the need for a lot of manual efforts.
For example, a common remediation project such as removing the Print Nightmare risk to organizations.
If you are not familiar with this, there is a high risk vulnerability with the Windows Print Spooler service which allows a hacker to remotely take over your device. There is no fix from Microsoft so patching is not an option. Therefore the recommended remediation action is to disable the service if it is not required.
Such a remediation project would require some steps:
Sounds simple? The above two steps in themselves require a lot of effort but there are many other considerations which add significant complexity.
For example:
This simple example shows why remediation for secure configuration and device hardening are costly and challenging projects.
So how can automation achieve efficiencies and improve productivity of overstretched IT and Security teams?
They need to stop being complex resource intensive projects and become simple operational tasks.
For this to happen, Secure Configuration Management solutions need to include the following:
GYTPOL is a Secure Configuration Management platform and has been leading the way to help both Security and IT teams to harden devices and be compliant through Zero Impact Remediation.
Organizations are experiencing significant benefits through secure and reliable automation. Doing more with less and achieving efficiencies and better productivity of both security and IT teams.
Some key benefits of GYTPOL include:
GYTPOL can be deployed using either a SaaS or On Premises. You are up and running within minutes and getting visibility with a simple and intuitive easy to use dashboard.
Contact us for a demo and a free fully functional trial.