LLMs, Quantum Computing, and the Top Challenges for CISOs in 2024

Amidst the ongoing surge in cyber threats, CISOs are encountering increasing challenges in their responsibilities.

During a recent CISO Panel Discussion on Application Security hosted by our CEO, Ashish Tandan, CISOs Kiran Belsekar from Aegon Life and Manoj Srivastava from Future Generali expressed concerns about managing security postures and shared actionable strategies to tackle evolving threats.

The blog covers the excerpts from the discussion, highlighting CISO challenges and best practices to follow in 2024:

AppSec Quarterly Report Insights

Based on the findings from our quarterly report on application security, the three significant areas in which attackers focus their efforts are:

1. Lack of Control over Digital Assets -Less than 0.1% of organizations boast control and identification of all their digital assets, leaving a vast attack surface for adversaries. Shadow assets become the battleground, presenting substantial security challenges.
2. Struggle to Patch Vulnerabilities – The pressure of releasing new features, staying competitive, and integrating third-party plugins creates a struggle to patch critical vulnerabilities, which often remain unaddressed for over 200 days, exposing organizations to exploitation.
3. The Rise in Cyber Attacks – DDoS attacks and bot attacks witnessed a surge, with nearly 40% facing DDoS assaults and almost 80% grappling with bot attacks.

The rapid pace of business demands quick turnarounds, and security measures must align seamlessly without compromising robustness.

As attacks escalate in sophistication, CISOs are challenged to counter them with equal agility and scale.

What are the Primary Challenges for CISOs?

1. Challenges in Security Management

The omnipresence and decentralization of technology present challenges in effectively managing security, spanning diverse areas such as endpoints and cloud security. The multitude of available solutions compounds these challenges, leading to a lack of a unified view and heightened complexity in security management.

To address this, organizations should adopt a holistic strategy that involves consolidating security solutions, implementing a centralized monitoring system, and regularly updating policies to ensure comprehensive coverage across all facets of technology.

2. Skill Shortages and Management Complexity

A pronounced shortage of skilled personnel worsens the complexity of addressing management challenges. The increasing demand for expertise in emerging technologies like AI and the necessity for efficient reporting and management practices further intensify the situation.

Embrace fully managed services as a strategic solution to overcome limited resources. Choose a reliable partner capable of managing people, processes, and technology, which is critical in addressing security challenges and encouraging confidence within organizations.

3. Timely Alert Response in Cyber Threat Landscape

The ever-evolving cyber threat landscape necessitates a rapid response to alerts. However, the advent of microservices and cloud-native architecture introduces additional layers of complexity, with security struggling to keep pace as major tech players introduce new technologies. This poses a particular challenge in maintaining an agile and responsive security posture. A delayed response to alerts in this dynamic landscape heightens the risk of overlooking or inadequately addressing potential security incidents, potentially leading to more severe consequences for organizations.

Effective communication emerges as a key player. Bridging the communication gap between security and other business functions becomes paramount for a unified defense.

4. Security Practices Evolution Amid Digital Transformation

While digital transformation brings about innovation, it simultaneously requires a fundamental shift in security practices to address emerging challenges. Adapting to the evolving landscape of technology and security becomes necessary to ensure robust protection against sophisticated threats.

Failing to evolve security practices in this dynamic environment poses a heightened risk of leaving organizations vulnerable to increasingly sophisticated cyber threats.

Security experts advocate for solutions like WAAP, emphasizing seamless integration into organizations to fortify security postures. Specifically, tackling DDoS attacks requires concentrated efforts on anti-DDoS measures at the application level, ensuring uninterrupted availability despite external threats.

5. Effective Communication and Compliance Balancing

Navigating the delicate balance between effective communication, compliance, and operational efficiency is fraught with potential risks. A misalignment in these elements may expose vulnerabilities and hinder the robustness of a security strategy. And, not sticking to these rules could lead to fines for noncompliance, underscoring the need for a careful balance to avoid financial consequences.

6. Asset Management

Growing concerns arise as Gartner notes that less than 1% of the companies truly know where their digital assets are due to the complexity of private cloud, public cloud, and various collaborations.

As organizations grow larger and employ more collaboration mechanisms, asset management is becoming a growing concern.

Promoting asset management maturity should be considered a best practice, emphasizing achieving comprehensive visibility that extends to Shadow IT.

Key considerations include:

• Recognize the prevalent trend of decentralized solution acquisition within organizations
• Implement technical controls for asset discovery
• Emphasize the significance of education awareness

7. Alert Fatigue

Alert fatigue occurs when security professionals or system users become overwhelmed by the sheer volume of security alerts and notifications. It happens when there are too many alerts to manage effectively, leading to decreased attention to potential security threats. This can compromise the effectiveness of security measures, as critical alerts may be overlooked or ignored.

Prioritize alerts based on severity to streamline patch management, utilizing automation for enhanced efficiency.

Effective strategies for mitigating alert fatigue are:

• Centralize alerts to improve visibility across the organization
• Educate development teams on the importance of patching to strengthen overall cybersecurity
• Implement virtual patching for proactive protection, ensuring seamless testing and deployment. A valuable strategy to enhance security and minimize the risks associated with potential vulnerabilities.
• Maintain a robust Incident Management process to manage incidents effectively, complementing preventive measures

8. Rising LLM Threats

Despite challenges, organizations are exploring LLM adoption to streamline operations. As a CISO, adapting to change is imperative in the face of evolving cyber threats. Leaders create change, adopters succeed, and resistors merely survive.

The growing risk of hackers leveraging tools like Chat GPT Auto coding underscores the need for a proactive defense.

Efficient operations and governance are critical. Learning from past incidents, such as the WannaCry ransomware attack in 2017 emphasizes the importance of timely solutions and proactive measures like patch deployment. Automation, such as intelligent IP analysis, enhances defense mechanisms.

When facing technological advancements like Chat GPT, a proactive mindset is essential. CISOs stress continuous learning and adaptability, urging professionals to view security as a business enabler rather than a roadblock.

Balancing technical aspects, risk management, and business alignment is a delicate task for CISOs. Strategic cybersecurity investments should seamlessly align with broader business priorities. Effectively communicating the business value of security transforms the security team into a strategic asset.

In navigating challenges posed by Large Language Models and technological shifts, CISOs are crucial in steering organizations toward resilient cybersecurity practices aligned with broader business goals.

9. Third-Party Compliance in Security Incidents

Third-party engagements introduce risks, notably data breaches, compliance violations, and operational disruptions. Unauthorized access can compromise sensitive data, leading to reputational damage. Inadequate security may result in non-compliance, inviting legal consequences. Operational disruptions and intellectual property theft pose additional threats.

A robust vendor risk management program is essential to recognize the inherent risks associated with vendor access to organizational data.

This involves regular security assessments, contractual obligations defining expected security measures, and ongoing monitoring through audits.

Collaboration is critical, extending beyond contractual obligations to involve vendors in transparent security discussions.

Additionally, establish clear communication channels and points of contact for immediate coordination in case of incidents.

Thorough due diligence before onboarding vendors, understanding their data access needs, and aligning their security policies with organizational standards are other crucial steps.

10. Balancing Security and User Experience

Balancing security and usability presents an ongoing challenge, as it’s essential to avoid hindering users while ensuring robust security measures. Here are the best practices to follow:

• Integrate security controls seamlessly into user workflows to avoid disruptions.
• Design controls with a user-friendly interface, providing clear guidance and prioritizing education.
• Actively incorporate user feedback to enhance control usability.
• Emphasize resilience through wise investments in encryption to minimize the impact of potential data breaches.
• Facilitate effective communication and risk management execution by speaking the same business language.
• Recognize the unpredictability of external threats and maintain visibility.
• Acknowledge compliance with acts like GDPR and the evolving Indian Data Protection Act.
• Recognize cyber insurance as complementary, underscoring the need for ongoing cybersecurity efforts.

11. Risk from Quantum Computing

Quantum computing poses a potential future risk to data security, and while it may not be an immediate concern, organizations must remain vigilant about existing data breaches. To safeguard data throughout its life cycle, it’s vital to adhere to best practices, which include retaining only necessary data.

Data movement between cloud environments, sometimes left unattended in S3 buckets or transferred to glaciers due to cost considerations, creates vulnerabilities that hackers could exploit, contributing to the gap in breach announcements.

To mitigate these risks, robust administrative controls are crucial. This involves incorporating mandatory clauses in service agreements to ensure data protection. Consent should be obtained for any changes in vendor infrastructure, and detailed attention should be given to secure data destruction during transfers.

When concluding a service contract, vendors must guarantee the thorough destruction of the organization’s data without retention for legal or regulatory purposes. These measures help fortify data security against potential threats posed by quantum computing advancements.

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