Cyber Defense eMagazine December 2019

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Empower Other Teams
Network and security teams are often assigned tasks that originate from other teams in IT. In some cases,
these tasks can be offloaded into the broader IT group, especially with the right tools in place. Gartner
fellow and research vice president Tom Scholtz states, “Many routine security functions can be
performed as well by other IT or business functions.” Tom recommends that organizations identify
functions or capabilities (such as user awareness communication) that can be handled elsewhere in the
business or IT department.
One example is provisioning network access for new servers or decommissioning access for outdated
servers. The server team can be tasked with these changes as long as they have appropriate guidelines
and guardrails to ensure they do not introduce new risks. An automated process for cloning the access
policy from one server to another (or to a group of servers) can repeatedly save valuable time for the
network team. Another automated process for decommissioning server access can complement the task
and tighten network security.
In addition, with automation, these tasks can be automatically integrated into the work of other teams and
be completed without needing additional assets from the scarce cybersecurity resources. In this way,
teams can decommission servers in the firewalls as part of the actual server decommissioning process
that is happening elsewhere in IT, or clone its firewall rules as part of setting it up. This is also the case
with risk analysis. In the manual days, every change request had to be manually checked for risks using
resources that are in short supply. With change automation, risk analysis can happen as part of the
automated change process, and only in cases where there is an actual risk, it will be forwarded to the
risk officers for further analysis.
Another example is managing application connectivity. Network teams have to enable connectivity for
application teams in order to support the business. The language barrier between application owners and
network engineers doesn’t make the task any easier. Application-driven automation for establishing and
troubleshooting connectivity empowers the application teams to initiate requests and analyze
disconnects, ensures security policy controls are baked into the process, and leads to tight cooperation
between the teams.
With analyst firm ESG’s annual global IT survey finding that the cybersecurity skills shortage has been
increasing steadily – with 53 percent of organizations bemoaning a lack of necessary talent – it’s difficult
to overstate the need to approach this problem in an inventive way.
Organizations need to look for fresh ways to manage complexity and improve operational efficiency,
which in turn will improve security. Security policy management and automation can enable organizations
to better meet the demands of the modern era without being derailed by the cybersecurity skills shortage.