What are Cyber Security Controls?

In this day and age, reducing cyber-attacks is the primary goal of the rapidly expanding cyber security industry. Cyber security experts are in charge of managing devices, networks, and data while safeguarding IT infrastructure. What exactly is cybersecurity, then? Why is it essential? What are the most effective defenses against cyberattacks? In this essay, let’s discover more in-depth.

Cyber security is a technology that guards against harmful behavior and secures internet-connected systems such as computers, servers, mobile devices, and networks. Technology encompassing networks, programs, systems, and data is called “cyber.” The protection of all the aforementioned cyber assets is referred to as security.

Information technology security or electronic information security are other names for cyber security.

What is control over cyber security?

Controls are established to guarantee the CIA trinity or the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of an organization’s information and technological resources. Additionally, controls are centered around the four pillars of strategy, processes, technology, and people.

A system called “cyber security control” is used to stop, identify, and lessen cyber-attacks and threats. Every corporation needs cyber security controls since they are utilized to oversee its security program.

Organizations place high importance on cyber security, from which they derive the necessary controls. Here are a few efficient smaller controls that every firm employs.

#1. Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP)

1. Due to the epidemic, the “remote desktop” software solutions category has expanded significantly. Such options enable total remote machine control, including storage and local network access.
2. Keeping remote desktop solutions inaccessible through the internet is essential since such broad access is a goldmine for hackers. Instead, restrict their access to VPN users or set up a virtual desktop solution like Citrix or VMware.
3. Without 2FA or MFA security, RDP shouldn’t be publicly accessible from the internet.
4. Vulnerabilities are frequently found in remote access solutions, making a strong patch management program crucial.

#2. Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)

EDR typically uses a small agent installed on endpoints, including workstations, servers, and laptops, to provide system-wide visibility for identifying suspicious activity.

1. EDR is geared to check for unusual behaviors like network scanning or lateral network movement, unlike antivirus, which focuses on signature-based detections to find malware.
2. The environment should have as many EDR agents as feasible deployed because attackers could use unmonitored systems to access the network.
3. EDR systems may send out a lot of alarms before they are properly calibrated. Alerts that could develop into real incidents must be monitored and verified by experienced staff.

#3. Planning for Incident Response

1. If there is an occurrence, your incident response plan should always be accessible and not inaccessible.
2. Make sure the IR plan includes a list of all the important departments, teams, and individuals. Whom should be reached out to first? What role does PR play? Who is the point of contact for each team? What is HR’s function?
3. Regularly test the IR plan and make any necessary updates. Ensure the strategy is updated with new contacts if there are personnel or role changes.
4. Time is of the essence when responding to an issue; therefore, ensure sure forensic firms, law firms, etc., are approved beforehand.

#4. Backups

Attackers leverage inadequate recovery capacities to intensify their extortion schemes. At least once a year, evaluate and test your recuperation capacities.

1. To recover from ransomware attacks, offline backups are essential.
2. Several backups are essential for dealing with data loss, data corruption, and harmful occurrences.
3. Review the data on all devices to decide what needs to be backed up, how frequently, and on what medium.
4. Make sure all procedures are recorded, and backups are tested. Data restoration is simply one part of the solution. Most businesses that discover problems during a crisis know what to restore, when to bring it online, and how to involve the business.

#5. Security Culture Training

The right culture is essential; staff members must feel free to voice their concerns and expose nefarious activities.

All employees should be required to complete mandatory cyber security training every year, and companies should test their knowledge on spotting and reporting suspicious activities, emails, and behaviors.

Knowing when to keep and delete data is a part of training personnel. What information must your business keep on hand? How much time? To reduce your company’s vulnerability, develop and adhere to a data retention strategy.

Employees should be equipped with the necessary knowledge and training to distinguish between legitimate and phishing emails and report any suspicious emails to the information security team.

#6. Need For Cyber Security Controls

Every system has flaws, some of which may be basic, and some may be complicated. A cyber attacker will attempt to exploit the system’s vulnerabilities if they learn about them. Security controls are actions that an organization takes to thwart these risks.

The countermeasures used to lessen the likelihood of a data leak or system attack are known as cyber security controls. The correct control must be chosen, which is a difficult task in cyber security but one that most firms get wrong.

Cyber attackers target and automate cyber threats. Malware, form jacking, cryptojacking, attacks on the domain name system, and other intrusion methods are all examples of attacks. To reduce the majority of the hazards, cyber security controls are helpful. It is always necessary to reduce dangers, and faults that occur in the system can be managed by utilizing crucial cyber controls like,

#7. Using antivirus software

1. Place a focus on employee education and awareness
2. Keep portable gadgets secure
3. Backup data securely and encrypt it
4. Different classifications that divide up the types of controls used in cyber security are taken into account based on their importance and classification.

Cybersecurity Control Types

Preventative, investigative, corrective, compensating, or deterrent measures are the major objectives of security control implementation. Three categories—technical, administrative, and physical—are developed from the fundamental cyber security rules. Let’s examine each of them in the light of the following:

Technical Restrictions

Logical controls are another name for technical controls. This is done to lessen attacks on both software and hardware. To safeguard the system, automated software tools are also implemented.

The following are some examples of technical safeguards used to safeguard the system:

1. Encryption
2. Antivirus and malware protection software
3. Firewalls
4. Information about security and event management (SIEM)
5. Intrusion Prevention Systems and Instruction Detection Systems (IDS) (IPS)

Two techniques are used to implement technical control:

ACLs are a type of network traffic filter that regulates both incoming and outgoing traffic. They are frequently used in routers or firewalls, but any networked device, from hosts to servers, can be designed to use them.

Configuration Rules are instructions to direct the system’s operation when data is sent through it.

Controls that specify the duties or operational procedures of an organization’s security objectives are referred to as administrative security controls.

Additional security measures are required for monitoring and enforcement to apply administrative controls. The following are the controls used to monitor and enforce:

Management controls: Risk management and information security is the main focus of this control.

Operational controls: Operational controls protect security controls primarily applied by people, such as management and technical controls.

Physical controls: Based on cyber security measures, physical security controls are established in a predetermined framework. That is employed to identify or stop unauthorized access to confidential information.

The following are a few examples of physical controls:

1. Closed-circuit television systems
2. Thermal or motion alarm systems
3. Security officers and photo IDs
4. Steel doors that are deadbolted and locked
5. Biometrics

These controls are employed to stop losses or mistakes. Here are some examples of preventative measures:

Hardening: Tightening security measures and decreasing attacks are two related processes.

Security awareness training educates employees and other stakeholders on security dangers and organizational policies and procedures.

Change management refers to the actions done by an organization to define and carry out systemic changes on both an internal and external level. To that end, the necessary measures for change must be prepared for and supported by the workforce.

When an employee quits the company, the account will be disabled by this policy.

Investigatory controls

It is an accounting phrase that refers to using internal control to identify problems within a company. Here are some examples of detective controls:

1. Log monitoring is the analysis of current data.
2. SIEM- A collection of tools and services is available to examine system operational logs.
3. Trend analysis is the process of extracting patterns from the log output of an application to obtain pertinent data.
4. Security audits are procedures concentrating on cyber security norms and regulations.
5. Video surveillance involves watching digital images, and videos exchanged via communication networks.
6. Motion detection is accomplished through sensors that can identify surrounding motions.

Corrective measures

1. Corrective measures are employed after a system malfunction to restore the system’s functionality. Several examples of corrective measures are
2. IPS – rapid identification of suspicious activities by detecting anomalies in traffic flow.
3. Creating and preserving data copies that can be utilized as a backup in the event of data loss is the process of backups and system recovery.

Preventative measures

Deterrent measures are intended to lessen intentional attacks, which typically take the shape of a material thing or person. Deterrent controls examples include,

1. Chain locks
2. Lock hardware
3. Guards and video surveillance
4. Compensatory measures

An alternate technique for meeting the security criteria is compensating control. Additionally, some security measures are now impracticable or unaffordable to deploy.