Protect Your Business With People, Patching, and Passwords

The term “digital revolution” gets thrown around a lot in modern organizations and across businesses, but a better phrase might be “modernization”, or even simply “necessary change.” Modern business has required massive technical and cultural changes over the last two decades, and while every organization is on their own journey, every business has had to evolve to succeed. Most of the time, this evolution means adopting new tech solutions to deliver new capabilities and deliver on customer expectations.

Our recent webinar with Shira Rubinoff – recognized cybersecurity executive, cybersecurity adviser, global keynote speaker, influencer, and author, who has built two cybersecurity product companies – discussed how these changes have influenced organizations and where the biggest problems tend to pop up as businesses advance in technology and grow their capabilities.

When it comes to protecting your tech stack, data, digital assets, and more, there are three main areas that create the most setbacks and security issues.

1. People
2. Patching
3. Passwords

Problem #1: People

User error is behind most security issues. Eighty percent of data breaches are the result of weak, reused, or stolen credentials. In the face of ongoing security threats, IT leaders struggle to not only keep up with the influx of threats against their users, but also struggle with employees reusing passwords or using weak passwords, which only increases the security risks.

How to solve it

We have plenty of resources that offer guidance and best practices for how to build and grow a culture of cybersecurity. Experts agree that employee behavioral changes (like no reusing passwords, reporting phishing scams, and more) start with a good education and culture of communication. Shira Rubinoff notes in the webinar, “Make it relevant. Make it meaningful and make it time sensitive to what they’re doing today. Make it real world.”

She also advises, “You create the cybersecurity atmosphere with private server culture within the organization and create this environment that your people could be your best tool. They can be part of the solution.”

Problem #2: Patches

With the increase of SaaS adoption, our work environments are constantly shifting and changing. The attack surface has grown exponentially, and every login to every piece of software can be a potential entry way for attackers. One way to ensure that there are fewer security gaps even as more apps enter our ecosystems is keeping software updated and secure across all protocols of the organization.

These updates and patches are critical. Patching is an easy way to keep security up to date, but it can feel daunting when you have to manage the updates on each individual software solution, sometimes even having to ensure users go offline to push an update. Many organizations don’t want to risk disrupting business as usual, but this time is essential.

How to solve it

It starts at the top. Cybersecurity leadership needs to prioritize the patching process and consider each piece of software that the organization uses as more than just a project management tool or time tracking tool, but as a piece of the overall security posture of the organization.

Problem #3: Passwords

This goes right along with people, but it’s worth noting as a separate security issue. Part of the reason is that passwords are so widely used for access to SaaS apps, bank accounts, patient portals, and other personal and professional logins that if a threat actor is able to compromise and gain access to one password, it’s statistically much more likely that users will have their other logins and passwords compromised.

Organizations have the opportunity to make security easier for their people and safer for their organization by not only formally securing passwords with password management tools, but also by moving past password technology as the only source of security. Evolving businesses need to make sure they also evolve their security.

How to solve it

LastPass helps companies to use fewer passwords, shifting toward a passwordless future. LastPass can help businesses go from no visibility of apps beyond SSO to complete observability and management in an admin console by providing policies and reporting to shape user behavior throughout the organization.

We can help you protect your business and modernize your security approach by reducing reliance on passwords while empowering your IT team with a robust admin dashboard to scale adoption and monitor employee cybersecurity practices. 

Want to know more about how to tackle your security challenges? You can listen to our whole webinar here for more details, advice, and expert problem-solving.