April 1, 2023
Security leaders must develop policies that accommodate mobile users expanding the attack surface.
For many years, cybersecurity policies relied on the predictable structures of classic network design. The enterprise’s local area network would contain data centers that housed core applications and information. The perimeter of the security network was clear, making it easy to distinguish between trusted and untrusted connections.
This is no longer the case. Cloud-native applications, edge computing, and remote workforces have blurred the traditional distinctions that most security policies rely on to function.
Although many organizations have implemented new technologies to detect and respond to sophisticated threats, they don’t always optimize the policies that dictate how those technologies should be used. Suboptimal policies can lead to operating inefficiencies, present obstacles to scalability, and even reveal hidden security vulnerabilities.
Implementing Extended Detection and Response (XDR) for mobile threat detection and response is a great example. XDR technology is well-equipped to address the threats posed by unsecured mobile devices and bring-your-own-device environments, but only when properly configured.
How to Optimize XDR Configuration to Address Mobile Vulnerabilities
XDR extends threat detection and response from the endpoint to the wider IT environment, including cloud-native applications and other network assets. This provides broad, real-time visibility into emerging threats while giving analysts powerful, automated options for addressing them.
Consolidate Hybrid and Remote Workforce Security Capabilities
XDR enables organizations to take a proactive approach to securing hybrid and remote workforces. More than half of employees prefer to work remotely at least three days a week, and it’s up to security teams to accommodate their remote connections.
Many organizations make the mistake of trying to incorporate mobile device security in a piecemeal way. Security leaders don’t always have sufficient resources to develop and implement a comprehensive mobile security strategy. In the end, this leads to inefficient workflows and overlapping capabilities between product stacks.
When multiple tools have overlapping security capabilities, it results in unnecessary complications for analysts and significant budget waste. Properly configured XDR implementations help analysts streamline their workflows and orchestrate incident response more effectively.
Prioritize Context When Analyzing Security Events
Security leaders need deep visibility into employees’ mobile device usage at every touchpoint with corporate assets and protected data. This requires implementing a security information and event management (SIEM) solution capable of collecting and analyzing mobile activity logs throughout the environment.
A properly configured SIEM implementation does more than trigger alerts for analysts to address. It can draw logs from multiple sources to provide critical context into security events as well. SIEM platforms that use contextual data to automate the process of curating event alerts to generate fewer false positives.
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This helps analysts work more efficiently while broadening their detection and response capabilities to include mobile devices and the cloud-native apps they access. Context helps analysts turn a sequence of logs into a narrative that accurately reflects the security situation at hand.
Use Custom Rules to Track Mobile Logs
Every organization’s workforce has a unique set of personal mobile devices, with different hardware models, software apps, and security settings on each. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for incorporating such a wide and varied selection of technologies into a robust security framework. It can only be done on a case-by-case basis.
For security leaders working with hybrid and remote employees, this requires creating and deploying custom rules that address the organization’s unique security risks. SentinelOne Singularity XDR supports Android logging and can be configured to prioritize high-risk mobile device activity.
Bringing mobile operating system logs into the XDR environment lets analysts retrace the actions mobile users executed at every stage in a security incident timeline. When SIEM experts use these context-specific logs to derive custom rules, security teams gain the ability to automate complex and time-consuming detection and response workflows. This frees valuable resources for high-impact strategic work, like crafting new security policies or proactive threat hunting.
Prioritize Mobile Security with Castra Expertise
Castra helps organizations enhance their security tech stack with valuable experience and product knowledge. Very few organizations have security teams with enough staff to respond to every security incident in a timely manner. Castra’s 24x7 security operations team acts as an extension of your own, helping you automate repetitive tasks and craft custom rulesets that resolve complex security gaps.
The constantly changing set of mobile devices your organization connects to is just one example of a complex security gap that demands customized attention. Let Castra help you identify these opportunities to improve your security posture and reduce the number of security incidents that require manual investigation.