Weekly Tips #5
Cybersecurity Practitioner 101
Which Mindset Do You Have?
Cybersecurity is a dynamic role and challenging field as it takes one to have the right mindset to be adaptable in that field. Are you one of them?
Red
Offensive Security
Blue
Defensive Security
Purple
Collaborative Security
Over the years, managing IT environments for multi-tenanted customers has required us to remain vigilant, especially when addressing concerns about secure environments. During one of my routine presentations, where I showcased our security measures with my usual confidence, I realized this particular customer from non-financial institution probing more questons than I was accustomed to, on our security practices.
I had always assumed that financial institutions would be the most stringent about security controls. However, this experience taught me otherwise. While the customer was convinced that our environment and their data were secure, their main concern was about the frequency and thoroughness of our audits and checks.
This experience was an eye-opening and has stayed with me ever since. It underscored the importance of not only implementing robust security controls but also regularly auditing and verifying those controls. A secure environment isn’t truly secure without continuos audits and checks to ensure that all measures are functioning as intended and that no vulnerabilities have been introduced.
This lesson has been invaluable, reminding me that comprehensive security involves ongoing vigilance and verification, not just initial implementation.
Looking back, I doubt I could have done it too as I do not have the luxury of a team of security practitioners to undertake more roles and task to complete the entire activities required to secure the environment based on each client’s need.
In today’s environment, while there is a wide range of security practitioners dedicated to protecting the organization’s information assets – particularly the systems, networks, and data from cyberthreats, however, this may still be not enough for some industries that requires stringents controls and also the audit trails for unconventional controls, such as whether someone could access the room through the ceiling.
But…how can you secured your environment totally?
Do you have the right team to help you mitigate such risks? Most highly-secured environment will often have the benefit of dedicated teams but generally, most business environment will need their practitioners to wear multiple hats to perform the activities and task. While the role can be assigned based on operational needs and skill sets but how do you determine they have the right mindset and characteristic to perform the activities?
Perhaps the below is an indicative of each mindset where they plays a crucial role in a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy of an organization. They are strategically structured so that organization can continuously improve their cybersecurity defenses by learning from simulated attacks and enhancing their detection to response capabilities.
While it can be advantageous to assign practitioners to specific color teams to leverage on their specialized skills, but the exact approach should be tailored to your organization. Do review your needs and organization security structure before you take the leap.
To gain a deeper understanding, you can learn more from our Cybersecurity Practitioner 101 program, or contact us to get free consultation.
RED Team
Relevant for identifying and simulating potential attack, helping to find weaknesses that need addressing.
BLUE Team
Crucial for implementing defenses, monitoring, and responding to incidents, maintaining the overall secuity posture.
PURPLE Team
A facilitator that look into bridging the gap between Red and Blue Team. They ensures that offensive findings by Red Team are affectively translated into defensive improvements which will be perform by Blue Team.
