Maheswaran is a well-known IT professional with over 23 years of experience across diverse functions within the information security vertical such as security audits, identity management, wireless & endpoint security, network intelligence and many others.

While the ongoing digitization has provided a host of benefits to businesses, it has also brought along numerous cybersecurity risks by significantly broadening the attack surface for cybercriminals to target. As a result, data is considered both the most vulnerable as well as a valuable asset for businesses. Adding on to this is the recent practice of working where employees are now connecting to the organization's network from anywhere using any device of their choice. Thus, organizations are now focusing on strengthening their security posture by continuously assessing their data frameworks in terms of where the data is saved, who can access it, tracking how it is being used and detecting any kind of suspicious activity. Additionally, many companies are also relying heavily on cutting-edge technology solutions to automate their data security practices to effectively tackle sophisticated cyber threats.

Emerging Trends & Tech Advancements

The threat landscape is becoming increasingly complex for end customers lately, wherein the cybercriminals are now highly organized and collaborate with each other on a global scale to simultaneously execute attacks in phases to ensure successful outcomes in a very short time span. To be better equipped for handling such organized cyber-attacks, companies must evaluate the people, process & technology controls they have in place and ensure that they remain relevant to the current market dynamics. Along with having robust security solutions in place, companies must also conduct regular vulnerability assessments and threat penetration tests to identify potential risks if any and take the necessary precautions. Additionally, it is extremely critical for organizations to have stringent access control mechanisms in place and even implement a 'zero trust' policy around access to all their data, systems and applications.

It is extremely critical for organizations to have stringent access control mechanisms in place and even implement a 'zero trust' policy around access to all their data, systems and applications

On the other hand, modern day technologies are playing a crucial role in helping businesses ensure data security and privacy across their entire network. These technologies are not only facilitating informed decision-making for businesses based on past data, but also automate most of the cybersecurity mechanisms to eliminate manual errors and safeguard sensitive data. Additionally, AI/ML also facilitates predictive analytics by offering recommendations to enterprises on what security measures to take by correlating historical data with current patterns, reducing the attack surface to a great extent for the organizations.

Need for Effective Data Security Posture Management

With the sharp increase in the number and frequency of cyber-attacks lately, enterprises are now looking at data security as a core element and not a support function. Thus, data security posture management has become a buzzword among the global business community, wherein companies are making significant investments in strengthening their cybersecurity posture. However, it is crucial for businesses to first understand the expectations of their customers in terms of their sensitivity, access and usage prior to enforcing any kind of controls to manage the data security posture of their products/solutions. This will act as the foundation stone for organizations to protect their data in a more efficient manner. Also, having complete visibility of their data enables businesses to cut down over exposure of data and ensure that the least access is imposed around sensitive data, strengthening their data security posture to a great extent.

Government’s Role in Improving Cybersecurity

Of late, the regulatory landscape surrounding data security and privacy is becoming very complex. Despite the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDP) still not being enforced, organizations are now more serious about cybersecurity than ever before and taking proactive measures to safeguard their data as well as be 100 percent compliant with all the security-related regulatory guidelines. While organizations gather Personal Identifiable Information (PII) from various sources, most of it is not at all necessary and many of them are not even aware of the potential risks of gathering such unnecessary data from individuals. For instance, a major portion of the personal information that most organizations gather from visitors through their visitor management systems is not at all necessary to just allow them to enter their office premises. Thus, there is an immediate need for the government and the regulatory bodies to come up with new guidelines for collecting and managing PII for organizations. The immediate readiness to embrace DPDP frameworks by enterprises that are operational in Europe and comply with GDPR is the perfect testimony to this.