Companies of all sizes invest billions in cybersecurity, hire large teams of experts and implement the most advanced defense technologies. However, even the best-funded organizations, such as NASA or tech giants like Microsoft, continue to fall victim to cyber attacks. These incidents teach us a fundamental lesson: there is no silver bullet in cybersecurity.
The belief in an "impenetrable barrier" is a myth that many organizations still pursue. The reality is that, no matter how sophisticated your defense, attack will happen. The real strength of a cybersecurity strategy lies in the ability to respond quickly and effectively, minimizing damage and ensuring business continuity. At Asper, this reality drives our approach. We have built a robust security ecosystem designed to deal with the inevitable, offering not just protection, but the confidence needed to operate in a digital world where attack is a certainty.
The Reality of Modern Threats
CrowdStrike's Global Threat Report 2024 warns us about the growing sophistication of cyber attacks. In 2023, interactive intrusions - in which adversaries perform manual actions in real time within compromised systems - increased by 60% over the previous year. These attacks require more than static defenses; they require real-time intelligence and an instant response capability, which Asper offers through its Cyber Fusion Centers (CFCs).
In addition, CrowdStrike revealed that 75% of attacks in 2023 were carried out without the use of malware, using legitimate tools and exploiting stolen credentials. This demonstrates the importance of rigorous identity management and constant monitoring of activities on networks and clouds, areas where Asper excels.
Asper at ISG: Leadership and Recognition
Asper has been recognized as a "Rising Star" in Managed Security Services (SOC) by ISG Provider Lens™ Cyber Security - Solutions & Services 2023. This recognition highlights our ability to provide advanced cybersecurity solutions for large accounts, as well as our performance in Vulnerability Assessment and Pentest, where we were also classified as a Product Challenger.
This ISG rating reflects our commitment to innovation and excellence in the sector, but more importantly, it reinforces our approach to creating an integrated security ecosystem tailored to the needs of each client. Our mission is not just to protect companies, but to prepare them to face global threats by providing the foundation for a secure future.
Building a Global Security Ecosystem
At Asper, we believe that true security is not just about preventing attacks, but about being able to respond with agility and precision. Our NG-SOC is the heart of our security ecosystem, providing 24/7 monitoring, proactive detection, integration and automated incident responses.
Our global security ecosystem is constantly revisited with a focus on the main vectors of malicious activity:
- Identity and Access Management (IAM): Based on the threats highlighted in the CrowdStrike report, where stolen credentials were the vector for many attacks, our IAM solution continuously monitors the use of privileged accounts and restricts access as necessary, preventing lateral movements within networks.
- Multi-cloud protection: As adversaries such as INDRIK SPIDER become more aware of cloud environments, our multi-cloud approach combines artificial intelligence and automation to detect anomalies in real time and protect our customers' critical assets.
3. Rapid Detection and Response: With an average time of 62 minutes between the detection of an attack and the response, as highlighted in the CrowdStrike report, our NG-SOC infrastructure is ready to react quickly and prevent threats from spreading, ensuring that our clients' operations continue uninterrupted.
Asper Process: The Basis of Our Ecosystem
Our cybersecurity process is the central element that unifies people, technology and intelligence. We adapt global best practices to the local needs of each client, ensuring a personalized and effective approach. From proactive detection to automated incident response, our Cyber Fusion Centers team is trained to react quickly and in a coordinated manner, minimizing the impact of threats.
Throughout the entire security lifecycle - from prevention to remediation - the Asper process ensures that threats are detected and neutralized before they cause significant damage. With a modular approach, we adjust the solutions to the needs of each client, ensuring flexibility and scalability.
Asper's Role in a Constantly Evolving Threat Scenario
The Global Threat Report 2024 also highlights the growth of identity-based attacks, as well as the increasing sophistication of attacks in cloud environments. Asper responds to these threats with a security ecosystem that integrates advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and automated threat detection. Our Cyber Fusion Centers function as an extension of our clients' operations, guaranteeing 24/7 support and rapid responses.
A whiff of reality
Here are two examples of groups that have been relatively successful in their attempted attacks and how we could use the best of solutions to meet local customer demands, combined with global security strategies:
The Scattered Spider uses social engineering attacks to steal privileged credentials and gain access to critical accounts. Defending against these attacks requires a combination of identity management and privileged access control.
1. CyberArk + SailPoint:
CyberArk offers a robust Identity Management solution , which ensures that all privileged accounts are monitored and controlled, preventing attackers from making lateral moves on the network after compromising an account and mitigating credential abuse attempts from the validation of the individual through the entire credential lifecycle, regardless of the moment.
SailPoint, a leading identity geo-governance platform, complements this defense with a holistic view of all identities in the organization, helping to manage the complete lifecycle of accounts and automating the assignment and review of privileges. Avoiding opportunities for abuse.
2. Veracode
To mitigate the exploitation of vulnerabilities in software that can be used as entry vectors, integration with Veracode enables continuous code analysis and security testing of applications, ensuring that the software is protected against exploitation of known flaws and that it is resilient since it is clear that non-resilient software is often exploited by adversaries.
3. CrowdStrike + Varonis:
The use of CrowdStrike Falcon provides real-time endpoint detection and response (EDR), detecting anomalous activity and blocking lateral movement, while Varonis acts to monitor and protect sensitive data, tracking data usage and flagging suspicious access. The integration of these two tools offers complete visibility of the company's critical assets and data, enabling rapid responses to potential compromises.
Defense Against INDRIK SPIDER: Cloud Security and Backup Protection
INDRIK SPIDER focuses on exploiting vulnerabilities in clouds and backup environments, often using ransomware to compromise and exfiltrate critical data. Asper, together with solutions such as Tenable, IBM Security, Elastic, and Akamai, offers a complete defense against these threats.
1. Tenable + IBM Security
Tenable strengthens vulnerability management by identifying and correcting flaws in IT infrastructures and cloud environments. This reduces the attack surface and prevents adversaries from compromising critical assets. IBM Security offers incident management and threat response solutions, acting as an additional layer of defense in the event of attack attempts, with strong integration between analysis and incident response.
2. Elastic
The Elastic Security solution guarantees total visibility of all assets within cloud environments and on-premises infrastructure, allowing Asper teams to monitor all logs and events in real time, detecting unusual activity that could indicate data exfiltration attempts or ransomware attacks, such as those perpetrated by INDRIK SPIDER.
3. Akamai (Guardicore / WAF / API Security)
The protection offered by Akamai, particularly with its application and API security solution (WAF + API Security), protects against attempts to exploit vulnerabilities in APIs, a tactic often used to compromise cloud services. Guardicore, also from Akamai, offers network segmentation, isolating critical environments and preventing an attack from spreading rapidly through the infrastructure.
4. Cymulate
Cymulate helps to test the resilience of the environment against real threats, simulating attack scenarios and ensuring that backup and recovery plans are solid and ready to respond quickly. This is vital to protect against ransomware such as that used by INDRIK SPIDER.
Proactive Detection and Rapid Response with an Integrated Ecosystem
With an average breakout time of just 62 minutes, as reported by CrowdStrike, speed of detection and response is critical. Asper, with its NG-SOC, integrates all these solutions into an ecosystem that proactively detects threats and responds in an automated way.
1. CrowdStrike + Elastic + Varonis
Asper's NG-SOC uses a combination of CrowdStrike Falcon to protect endpoints, Elastic to capture and correlate logs in real time, and Varonis to monitor and protect sensitive data. Together, these solutions offer rapid detection and detailed insights into any intrusion attempt, allowing response teams to act quickly to neutralize the threat.
2. IBM Security
IBM Security complements these defenses with its Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), offering in-depth analysis of security events and automating incident response, ensuring that threats are contained as quickly as possible.
Integrated Security Ecosystem: A Unified Approach to Defense
The real strength of Asper 's security ecosystem lies in its ability to integrate the best tools on the market - such as CyberArk, SailPoint, Tenable, CrowdStrike, IBM Security, Veracode, Cymulate, Varonis, Elastic and Akamai - to build a modular and scalable solution. This allows companies to adapt the best of the solutions according to their specific needs, in alignment guided by a well-defined process.
In today's digital environment, threats are becoming more complex, faster and more damaging. However, with Asper's integrated security ecosystem, which combines the market's leading cybersecurity solutions, companies can be confident that they will be protected against the most advanced threats, while maintaining the flexibility and resilience needed to respond to any scenario. The combination of CyberArk, SailPoint, Tenable, CrowdStrike, IBM Security, Veracode, Cymulate, Varonis, Elastic and Akamai provides a robust defense that goes beyond prevention and focuses on rapid response and recovery.
Conclusion: Preparing for the Inevitable
By choosing Asper, companies have the opportunity to align their cybersecurity strategies with global best practices, while benefiting from local, customized solutions. Our ISG Provider Lens™ rating and Rising Star recognition reinforce our leadership in the industry, but it's our ability to address a robust security ecosystem that really makes the difference when the time comes.
In the end, it 's not about avoiding the impossible, but being prepared to respond quickly and effectively when an attack does occur. Asper offers not just protection, but confidence so that our clients can operate with peace of mind in an increasingly digital and volatile world.
