The 5 dimensions of security resilience

How Cisco Secure helps customers navigate uncertain times

Security resilience is the ability to protect the integrity of every aspect of your business in order to withstand unpredictable threats or changes – and then emerge stronger. This has always been a requirement in cybersecurity, but recent events have made it more critical than ever.

By now we all know that avoiding cyberattacks one hundred percent of the time is unrealistic. Our networks have become too complex and dispersed to catch everything, and attackers have grown incredibly skilled at finding gaps in our infrastructure. Protective barriers between businesses have become blurred as corporations, customers, suppliers, and partners all operate as integrated ecosystems – and as we move towards the future of work, where employees have the freedom to perform their jobs from wherever they choose.

What matters now is how fast we can identify and contain threats, mitigate risks to our organization, and bounce back in the event of impact. So how do we become resilient? How do we make sure that attackers’ plans are rapidly thwarted, and that our businesses continue to thrive despite challenges? How do we ensure the integrity of our finances and data, recover from operational disruptions, withstand shocks to supply chains, and secure a hyper-distributed workforce?

Steps to security resilience

In a world where uncertainty is the new normal, Cisco Secure empowers organizations with security resilience so they can endure unpredictable circumstances. To do this, we break security resilience into five main components:

1. See more and activate billions of signals across your infrastructure. Use your technology as the eyes and ears of your network, actively seeking out unusual behaviors and cyber threats 24/7 to more quickly uncover attacks. Achieving comprehensive visibility and awareness means less surprises and stronger defenses.
2. Anticipate what’s next and embrace shared, actionable intelligence to always know when things change. When you’re aware of what’s happening within your network and around the globe, you can more easily predict what’s next. Leverage in-depth visibility, and advanced threat intelligence from organizations like Cisco Talos, to keep your finger on the pulse of today’s cyber events.
3. Take the right action and prioritize what’s most important. The risk-based context provided by your security ecosystem and up-to-the-minute threat intelligence can help you figure out where to place your valuable attention. There will always be too many threats to investigate and remediate at once – understand which ones you’re most at risk for, and which ones will have the greatest impact on your organization, and then protect accordingly.
4. Close the gaps and achieve pervasive defense with an open platform across users, devices, networks, and applications. Our Security Outcomes Study found that well-integrated technology is a top factor for security success. Disjointed systems leave dangerous security gaps. But if you connect everything, you can consistently monitor and protect all the assets in your environment, and forgotten systems won’t become key resources for cybercriminals.
5. Get stronger every day by orchestrating and automating your response. Learn from the previous experiences of both your security team and others to further harden your architecture against constantly evolving threats. According to the Security Outcomes Study, organizations that regularly test their business continuity and disaster recovery capabilities in multiple ways are 2.5 times more likely to maintain resilience.

How Cisco Secure can help

Cisco Secure enables customers to excel in these five dimensions of security resilience through:

• An integrated, open platform – With our cloud-native Cisco SecureX platform, we allow customers to seamlessly integrate multiple security and networking technologies, from both Cisco and third parties, to achieve more pervasive visibility and coordinated threat response. With SecureX, you can see more, block more, and automate more for enhanced network protection, while amplifying the power of existing security investments.
• Unsurpassed threat intelligence – Cisco Talos is the world’s largest commercial threat intelligence organization. Talos’ threat analysis is woven into our entire security portfolio, and is also shared with a wider audience for the collective protection of our global infrastructure.
• A long history of securing connectivity – As the worldwide leader in networking, we are uniquely positioned to provide secure connectivity. Our networking infrastructure, and subsequent threat intelligence, is prolific around the globe. And our nearly 40-year heritage of being a trusted advisor to our customers means you never have to go it alone.

Providing customers with agility and peace of mind

Town of Gilbert, Arizona

Cisco helped the Town of Gilbert, Arizona become “The Best City for Remote Workers” in a 2020 national survey. “We work at having an agile environment to pivot as needed,” says Mary Goodman, assistant town manager for the Town of Gilbert. The city relies on a combination of Cisco networking, collaboration, and security technologies – including Cisco SecureX – to remain resilient.

“You have to be forward-thinking and put the appropriate defenses and mitigation strategies in play. It’s very important that we engage with companies like Cisco that help inform us about how to do things that take away as much risk as possible.”
— Dr. Tony Bryson, Chief Information Security Officer, Town of Gilbert

“Making sure we are prepared for the future – a pandemic or the next crisis – started years ago. It’s that forward thinking that really put us in the position to succeed,” adds Eugene Mejia, deputy chief technology officer for the Town of Gilbert.

Leng-d’Or – Barcelona, Spain

After suffering several cyberattacks, multinational food manufacturing company Leng-d’Or turned to Cisco to get back on track – restoring productivity, protecting its valuable data and assets, and safeguarding employee and customer trust. According to Enric Cuixeres, head of information technology at Leng-d’Or, “We’ve spent 55 years building our reputation, but something as commonplace as a phishing email and a wrong click by an employee has the potential to undo all of our hard work.”

He continued, “Cisco’s full suite of security products provides Leng-d’Or with the support we need to protect our business against all threats. And this in turn gives us peace of mind that we can produce 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to keep up with customer demands, drive compliance with industry standards, and make sure our reputation is always protected.”

Learn more and act with confidence

As we’ve entered another tumultuous year, resilience must be top of mind for all cybersecurity defenders. With Cisco Secure, business leaders can act with confidence despite an ever-changing threat landscape.

Explore Cisco SecureX and our integrated security portfolio to learn how you can add layers of cyber resilience to your environment.

(See our guidance page for specific security details on the situation in Ukraine.)

 

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