How to Defend Your Business from Tech Failures? | DROP Organization

Posted by on

The recent CrowdStrike event raised great concern about the risks of allowing a software vendor , deep access to network infrastructure. It has depicted the fact of concentration of digital services in the hands of a few companies. 

In a prescient Reddit post, it was noted, that CrowdStrike is a threat vector for many of the world's largest corporations, along with a hold mine of data.

CroedStrike has brought a scenario of worldwide computer shutdowns and failed update on July 19. It is possible that in the present big tech market, such a widespread outage can occur again. According to Synergy Research Group, the three leading cloud providers are Amazon, Microsoft and Google, which accounts for 67% of the worldwide market. Amazon alone commanded 31% of the market at the end of 2023.

The following strategies could mitigate the effect of similar software failures:

  • Diversify your network infrastructure
  • Practice for failure

Invitation of Third-party Software Suppliers into Your Business

Granting the access of device to an outside software or services supplier welcomes the risk of:
  • Losing access to network functionality (as evident in the CrowdStrike event)
  • Visibility of your business activities through aggregated data
  • Unauthorized access to data (such as IP addresses or customer data safe)
Moreover, your data security is presently dependent on the security practices of a cybersecurity company or cloud service provider.
If we consider the "mobile device management" or "device monitoring" tools, among them, most of are essentially rootkits that permits a third-party the entire control over your company's systems. This seems to be ill-advised for any company with proprietary intellectual property they want to keep confidential.

CrowdStrike screwed up and took down several million Windows computers in a spectacular fashion. But, it shall be noted that crashing Windows computers is just the tip of the iceberg. The important aspect and in fact a larger threat is overlooked, so collectively and conveniently, is that some other entity holds power over your business operations.

Though, advanced security software is important, but giving someone else the keys of your network can be a potential threat under the guise of providing security to your company. People are anxious about Facebook tracking and turn off third-party cookies for their private life, but software like CrowdStrike can watch, monitor and even track every corporate computer, form the lowest intern right up to the CEO. Cookies are the least of your worries.

Now, even if CrowStrike is reliable and their software works as intended, imagine a situation where someone hacks the CrowdStrike itself. The attacker would theoretically have access to airlines' networks, banking networks and a who's who of global enterprises. After all this, the problem becomes more severe and a matter of worry. It must be evaluated as a risk, whenever, you grant a supplier such extensive network access.

Mitigating Large-Scale Tech Failures

  • The key to mitigating another large-scale system failure is to plan for catastrophic events and practice your response.
  • Make dealing with failure as a part of normal business practices.
  • When failure is unexpected and rare, the processes to deal with it are untested and may even result in actions which make the failure worse.
  • Build a network and a team that can adapt and react to failures.
  • To minimize large-scale tech failures is to avoid the software monoculture, those created by the concentration of digital tech suppliers.
  • Make a policy of buying the core networking equipment from three or four different vendors, which may assure that if one vendor has a failure, their entire network is not compromised. 
Whether it's tech or biology, a monoculture is extremely vulnerable o epidemics which can destroy the entire system. Hence, in the CrowdStrike scenario, if the corporate networks had been a blend of Windows, Linux and other operating systems, the damage would not have been so widespread.

Final Thoughts

Third-party software suppliers and cloud services are an integral part of the IT landscape, but to reduce the risk to your businesses, you must resist the temptation to put all your eggs in one basket. In brief, CrowdStrike taught us to diversify your suppliers and systems and dust off your contingency plans.
Want to start your learning journey on Cyber Security and Ethical Hacking field?



Comments

Post a Comment