Must-Have Cybersecurity Suite Innovations for 2023

With the shift to remote work, the cybersecurity world has experienced unprecedented challenges and innovations. Clunky, out of date solutions which may have let companies to skate by pre-pandemic won't cut it anymore. Here are some of the most important cybersecurity suite innovations today. 

1. Zero Trust

The “Zero Trust” framework is a new method of granting network permissions that is being rapidly adopted by industry leaders. Zero Trust assumes that attackers have already breached your network and are among the users within your organization. It designates the minimum possible permissions and authorizations for users, assuming all are untrustworthy by default until proven otherwise. Hence why it's called "Zero Trust".

About 20% of data breaches occur within an organization, perhaps from a disgruntled employee with an axe to grind. A Zero Trust framework ensures that all users don’t gain full access to a company’s system by default, so that if one employee goes rogue or is otherwise compromised, it doesn’t threaten the entire system. 

2. Converged/Unified Endpoint Management 

Modern IT solutions are typically a scattered assortment of point-solution tools that are clunky and uncoordinated. Many companies suffer from “tool sprawl”, possessing many different specialized point solutions to treat many different security concerns.

62% of IT executives who responded to a survey from Thales stated that they employ five or more key management systems. ESG research found that 51% of organizations have a problematic shortage of cybersecurity staff and skills – showing that there are already too few professionals to handle numerous unnecessary security tools.

Clearly, a centralized security solution is needed. That solution has arrived in the form of Converged Endpoint Management (Abbreviated to ‘XEM’ by Tanium, one of the current industry leaders). One console, complete with full functionality centralized in one place. The International Data Corporation has found that nearly 90% of IT decision makers have a plan to move from the old point solutions framework to converged platforms by 2024.

A converged platform that centralizes endpoint monitoring and management would have enormous benefits for companies. It’s been estimated that for every 250 devices supported, customers can save as much as $100,000, and organizations with full XEM frameworks improve their security postures by deploying their Windows updates, patches, etc. 22% more often. That's less time spent monitoring update rings or worrying something doesn't go bump in the night because of outdated software. 

3. Quantifiable Systemic Risk Metrics 

There are many ways to improve security posture and reduce the chance and potential damage of security breaches. But what if there was a way to actively quantify risk to an organization in real time? Such solutions are rapidly being developed and released as customers express the need for real time Unified Endpoint Management services to monitor their endpoint risk.

CrowdStrike’s framework uses cloud-based analytics to score and then rank incidents by criticality. Tanium provides an overall risk score which is the average of all calculated risk scores for every endpoint. It functions like a credit score, telling an organization what their overall risk is, and how they stack up compared to their competitors. But what if there was a way to scan and score individual endpoints, and thus isolate which endpoints within a customer’s network are repeat security offenders? 

There are three major new advances within the cybersecurity world which businesses must adopt if they want to stay at the top of their game. A Zero Trust framework prevents a permissions structure from granting excessive access to users on a network. A Converged Endpoint Management system abandons the haphazard and inefficient system of innumerable point solutions in favor of a single console that provides piercing insight into system security on the most fundamental level. And lastly – a need for real-time, quantifiable endpoint security analysis straight from a business’ cloud to their security console.