Cybersecurity Mesh: A Modern Approach Organizations Should Not Neglect in 2022 & Beyond

In this modern age of hybrid forces and technological innovations, various resources, including staff, are operating outside of the traditional infrastructure. The fact that security is no longer limited to a physical location proves to be really challenging for growth-oriented organizations. Evolving cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities prove that the “walled city” approach is not enough. What we call traditional network parameters is currently spreading across a diverse network infrastructure at a neck-breaking pace. 

We cannot neglect the reality that the pandemic-inspired shift to remote work has resulted in the disclosure of new attack surfaces. In addition,  IoT technologies, virtual networks, edge computing devices, remote employees, and other digital transformation facets require scalable and flexible security strategies. 

As organizations are evolving beyond their physical location, every node becomes a potential access point that cybercriminals can exploit to compromise the whole network. Attackers are increasingly using such vulnerable access points for the deployment of cyberattacks, including ransomware and other forms of malware. Researchers estimate that cyberattacks will be $6 trillion per year and rising very soon.      

Considering those evolving cyberattacks and vulnerabilities, it’s high time for businesses and organizations to acquire sophisticated measures to enhance their cybersecurity protocols. Cybersecurity mesh is the most adaptable and practical approach to fight against cyberattacks in an enterprise-level organization. 

What’s the solution to this? A broad, automated, and integrated cybersecurity mesh platform. 

So the question is: What is a cybersecurity mesh? 

Gartner describes this new evolving term as follows: 

“Cybersecurity mesh (CSM) is a modern conceptual strategy to a security architecture that allows the distributed enterprise to extend and deploy security wherever it is extremely required.”

In layman terms, CSM extends security across the overall architecture. This compelling approach allows an organization to secure all the points and systems with a unified set of technologies. In addition, CSM can effortlessly evolve with the emergence of new threats because the most recent threat intelligence drives it.  

Keep reading to know more about layers of cybersecurity mesh, its benefits, and more. 

Layers Of Cybersecurity Mesh

Acquisition of CSM strategy has distinct benefits. Interoperability, compatibility, and scalability are to name a few. This strategy revamps the approach to designing and building the network infrastructure for new developments. Evolving to a new strategy probably leads to significant adjustments to the infrastructure at the initial stages, but the advantages of CSM justify the cost. 

Cybersecurity mesh architecture (CSMA) provides four foundational layers that provide an adaptable and agile response to the modern-age security and integration challenges. 

• Consolidated Dashboards: CSMA provides clear visibility into the security ecosystem, permitting security teams to detect security events and deploy proper responses. 
• Consolidated Policy and Posture Management: CSMA translates a central cybersecurity policy into the native configuration of every security tool, allowing IT teams to identify misconfiguration issues and compliance risks effectively. 
• Distributed Identity Fabric: This layer of CSMA allows decentralized identity management, adaptive access, entitlement management, directory services, and identity proofing.  
• Security Analytics and Intelligence: Centralized administration permits the collection, consolidation, and analysis of enormous data in real-time at a central location. This enhances threat response time, risk analysis capabilities, and mitigation of attacks.  

Benefits Of Cybersecurity Mesh 

Cybersecurity mesh provides innumerable benefits to the enterprise-level organization. For instance, this approach helps in the detection and prevention of large-scale attacks in real-time. Moreover, it allows the digital operations of an organization to rush smoothly for the enhancement of the firm’s IT security defenses. 

CSMA makes the security posture of an organization flexible. Enterprises can change their security strategy immediately for the prevention of cyber threats from manipulating loopholes.   

Some more pros of CSMA are as follows:  

• This strategy permits organizations to handle the majority of IAM requests. It guarantees that enterprise-grade digital asset access and control are available for the firm’s network structure to be more adaptive with guaranteed access to unified management control.  
• This solution ensures that the profile of every individual is protected. This will grant access only to genuine queries and make it challenging for malicious attacks to thrive in your system. 
• This approach allows businesses to set up a zero-trust network that only distinguishes team members and deters unauthorized access to private data. 
• This strategy ensures that no deployment breaks in the IT security structure of the company. The team can effortlessly protect company-based enterprises using CSMA in a scenario where issues are to be resolved. 
• This architecture allows effortless checking of compliance and security issues in an organization where there is a lot of work to be done. 
• An excellent CSMA solution can stop adware/spyware from working and keep your employees’ actions confidential.  

Critical Considerations While Implementing Cybersecurity Mesh 

If you have come this far while reading and still wondering why you should implement CSMA in your organization, then flick your eyes through the following statistics: 

• Cost: The annual cost of ransomware attacks is $6 trillion annually. Moreover, the cost of cybercrime is evolving by leaps and bounds and is about 15% per year. 
• Vulnerability: A ransomware attack occurs in this world every 11 seconds! Also, there has been a 600% upsurge in phishing schemes in the past couple of years. 
• Migration: An accelerated shift in cloud computing platforms results in data breaches. 

Some more options that make CSMA compelling are as follow: 

• Agility: CSMA makes an organization’s response to expansion and security more agile. 
• Practicality: CSMA is the most practical model to deal with the components of an organization’s digital assets that lie outside the traditional network perimeter. 
• Effortless implementation: CSMA is suited in such a way to make designing, deployment, and maintenance efficient. 

Protect Your Network Before Using CSMA

To cut a long story short, CSM allows growth-oriented organizations to make informed cybersecurity decisions. In result, they can develop effective digital defenses. And be in a better position to push against cybercriminals’ tricks. Undoubtedly, an appropriate CSM framework is pivotal in making digital operations effective and effortless. Higher authorities can have a good sleep at night knowing they don’t have to worry about their data protection. 

ArhamSoft (Pvt) Ltd utilizes cybersecurity mesh architecture (CSMA) to reduce risks while eliminating gaps and vulnerabilities in security. The company is thriving with the implementation of such architecture to stay competitive in the ever-changing digital landscape. The company uses network control tools. Firewalls to ensure that a specific area is independently safe and not a threat to the rest of the architecture. 

Hence, CSMA is the dire need of the hour to fight a strong battle against complex and challenging cybersecurity threats.