Visualize Everyday Workflow Threats to Prevent Data Breaches

Do you know where your organization keeps its PII, PHI or other IP? Are they on-premise or in the cloud? Do you know who has access to them? Are all of your financial records accounted for? Do you know if this year’s product plan or next year’s budget have been accessed, downloaded or shared? Does the contractor who left your firm last month still have access to these records?

Take Back Control of Your Data With Vendor Risk Management

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The modern enterprise spends millions of dollars on cyber security, yet the modern CISO can’t say in any specific detail what information is entering and leaving the firm. If you can’t see it, you can’t defend it. Everyday workflows where employees exchange sensitive information with external parties expose the firm to constant threats, including leaks, phishing, malicious files, and compliance violations. These external workflow threats have a common theme: a user is the actor, and a file is the agent. Complete protection requires a defense that spans the full breadth of the associated threat surface: the collective paths of all files entering and leaving your organization.

In my last blog post, we discussed how everyday workflow threats like internal leaks and malicious emails have complex, intricate threat surfaces that are difficult to define and more difficult to defend. Today, I’ll explore the importance of visibility to that threat surface with a CISO Dashboard for visualizing and tracing all external file transfers.

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If You Can’t See It, You Can’t Defend It

In most organizations, the external workflow threat surface is only partially visible and partially defended. You can’t really see it by scanning packets, because packets are on the wrong layer. You can’t fully defend it by scanning files, because a file is only one point on the surface. To understand the full threat surface of all external workflows, you must visualize the collective paths of all files entering and leaving the organization.

Visualize the Collective Paths of All Files Entering and Leaving the Organization

If you don’t have visibility to the path of every file entering and leaving your organization, then you have no real control over the threat. You can implement point solutions, such as anti-virus (AV) and data loss prevention (DLP), but how can you be sure that they are seeing every file? How can you be sure that you are protecting the entire path? It only takes one malicious email attachment to destroy your network. It only takes one leaked client folder to destroy your reputation.

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If You Can’t Measure It, You Can’t Manage It

To manage the threat, you must measure it. As a start, you need a detailed log of each external file transfer. Where is it coming from? Where is it going to? Who is sending it? Who is receiving it? What are its contents? Is it sensitive? Is it infected? Imagine the power you would gain with a CISO Dashboard that shows all external file transfer paths in real-time between your organization and your customers, your vendors, your partners, your attorneys, your investors, and all other external parties.

With visibility of all external file sharing, you can separate routine work from anomalous threats. Imagine analyzing those communication paths along relevant dimensions, such as content sensitivity, origin and destination, time of day, or simply file type. When you can see the threat surface clearly, completely, and in context, then you can devise a holistic security strategy that prevents bad actors from subverting your everyday external workflows.

In the next post, I’ll discuss shrinking the threat surface by constructing a secure external perimeter around file sharing applications and a secure internal perimeter around your sensitive data repositories. Otherwise, sensitive files can leak out undetected and malicious files can worm their way into your most sensitive content. Future posts will cover concepts like hardening the threat surface with data encryption in transit and rest, and advanced security tools like ATP and DLP.

To learn more about the importance of a CISO Dashboard for visualizing and tracing all external file transfers, schedule a custom demo of Kiteworks today.

Frequently Asked Questions

Third-party risk management is a strategy that organizations implement to identify, assess, and mitigate risks associated with their interactions with third-party vendors, suppliers, or partners. These risks can range from data breaches and security threats to compliance issues and operational disruptions. The process typically involves conducting due diligence before engaging with a third party, continuously monitoring the third party's activities and performance, and implementing controls to manage identified risks. The goal is to ensure that the third party's actions or failures do not negatively impact the organization's operations, reputation, or legal obligations.

Third-party risk management is crucial because it helps to identify, assess, and mitigate the risks associated with third-party relationships. This can include cybersecurity threats, compliance issues, operational risks, and reputational damage.

Policy controls are essential in third-party risk management as they establish clear expectations for third-party behavior, data handling, and security practices. They help mitigate the risk of security incidents by defining acceptable actions, and ensure third parties comply with relevant laws, regulations, and industry standards. Further, policy controls provide a foundation for monitoring third-party activities and enforcing compliance, allowing the organization to take appropriate action in case of policy violations. Thus, policy controls serve as a critical framework for managing third-party risks effectively.

Audit logs are integral to third-party risk management as they offer a comprehensive record of all third-party activities within your systems. They aid in identifying potential risks by highlighting unusual or suspicious activities, serve as a crucial resource during incident response and forensic investigations, and help ensure regulatory compliance by providing proof of effective security measures and third-party monitoring. In addition, they foster a culture of accountability and transparency among third parties, deterring malicious activities and encouraging adherence to security policies.

Kiteworks helps with third-party risk management by providing a secure platform for sharing and managing sensitive content. The platform is designed to control, track, and secure sensitive content that moves within, into, and out of an organization, significantly improving risk management. Kiteworks also provides two levels of email encryption, Enterprise and Email Protection Gateway (EPG), to secure sensitive email communications. This helps to protect against third-party risks associated with email communication.


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