Key Notes from the Security Team: Q2 2024

Q2 has brought incredible opportunities to Eberly Systems, and with it, new and unique challenges. We are in a season of significant growth, which means applying our security standards across a wider range of technical environments. 

Theme of the quarter:

Footprint 

In technology, we sometimes use the term “footprint” to refer to the amount of data or exposure an application or an organization has to the outside world. The more ‘stuff’ there is, the larger the footprint. From a security perspective, the more data and systems there are, the more challenging it is to protect. 

Our security efforts in recent months have been less about implementing new tools or resources, and more about working to minimize or put proper safeguards around the exposure to various systems for our clients. 

Application Whitelisting

In 2024, we see Application Whitelisting as a vital tool to prevent malware and viruses from running. This is effectively a list of approved applications allowed to run on a computer. If something tries to execute on a computer with Application Whitelisting, tools will block the executable from running. In our security incident simulations, we find that Application Whitelisting was the most powerful tool in stopping hacking incidents in their tracks. 

Auditing Access 

Another key point of exposure for an organization is the number of accounts with administrative privileges. Every user account with local admin rights or even more significantly, with domain or tenant wide admin rights, is a potential entry point for an attacker to take advantage of the account and leverage those permissions in a breach. 

We have recently been working on this with several of our clients in order to limit or restructure access that users have to computers and systems. Sometimes this is as simple as giving someone a separate account for administrative actions, or sometimes, we use our advanced security tools to control specific applications and eliminating the need for users to log in directly with an admin account. 

Evaluating Security Tools 

It's always beneficial to evaluate tools and solutions in order to remain abreast of the newest developments in the security landscape, and this has been one of our main focuses.

Remediating EOL Systems 

One of the most dangerous risks that businesses assume is running out-of-date software. Whether its an application like Adobe Reader, or an operating system like Windows 8, it is very important to identify these systems and either update them or remove them from the environment. We have seen several businesses experience near-catastrophic events that began from a computer running an unsupported version of Windows. 

The Eberly Systems Team has made strides in the past quarter to remove outdated and risky systems from our clients' production networks. This is exactly the kind of thing that minimizes the footprint for an organization.