Cyber Resilience–New Motto, Same Outstanding Results
Given the UMass Boston Information Security Office (ISO) track record of outstanding performance, it would be understandable if one year it just decided to relax a bit and rest on its laurels. If someone else oversaw the ISO besides Wil Khouri, Chief Information Security Officer, perhaps they would think that UMass Boston’s information security infrastructure has already proven itself invulnerable to hacks or breaches, so there doesn’t need to be an unrelenting effort to strengthen our cybersecurity posture every year.
Well, Wil Khouri isn’t someone else, and to him it’s ridiculous to even think about not improving the UMass Boston cybersecurity infrastructure on a continual basis. Wil knows that new cyberthreats are emerging all the time, and if UMass Boston’s cybersecurity isn’t constantly improving it won’t stay one step ahead of the bad guys. He is also aware that universities are especially vulnerable to cybercrime, because “Institutions like ours, in higher education, have a unique mix of challenges because we try to strike a balance between easy access to resources and security.”
So, over the years Khouri has utilized a consistent strategy that has kept UMass Boston as safe from cybercrime as any university in the country. First, there is a comprehensive annual review of the UMass Boston cybersecurity program and infrastructure conducted by Elliott-Davis, a cybersecurity consultancy. The UMass Boston test score jumped from B- to A- this year, but the score is not as important to Wil as are the areas the report shows where the university’s cyber-defenses can be improved. Armed with that knowledge the ISO formulates their cybersecurity strategy for the coming year.
The ISO traditionally identifies their plan with a thematic label, and this year Cyber Resilience was chosen. Cyber Resilience is “the ability to anticipate, withstand, recover from, and adapt to adverse conditions, stresses, attacks, or compromises on systems that use or are enabled by cyber resources,” according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology. That sounds good, but what does it mean, or as Wil put it, “How do we translate cyber resilience from a buzzword to an actionable strategy?”
Fortunately for UMass Boston, doing what this question asks is precisely the type of thing that Wil and the ISO do best. For Khouri, “You can’t be resilient if you don’t know what you are protecting. Our strategy was to build a toolset to augment our visibility. Cyber resilience starts with adopting a risk-based information security strategy. This strategy enables us to act with a proactive mindset.”
Examining the university’s cybersecurity profile from this perspective enabled Khouri to identify key questions needing to be asked and issues that had to be resolved. Specifically, Wil saw that a ransomware attack could be problematic. “Can we identify a ransomware attack in a timely manner? Can we recover from a ransomware attack? What if the ransomware made it into our backup files?” and most importantly, “What platforms are out there that can mitigate such a threat?”
When investigating this final question, the ISO came to a clear conclusion. The Rubrik Ransomware Investigation platform could provide all the security features the ISO was seeking. “Rubrik is a cyber resiliency platform (backup/recovery) that embraces the zero-trust model, especially for ransomware resiliency. It detects anomalies and malware within the backup data and provides efficient blocking and recovery features,” Wil stated.
Rubrik, of course, is just one piece of the ISO’s cybersecurity strategy this year, but UMass Boston can rest assured that the ISO will remain focused on continually improving the university’s cybersecurity posture every year. Wil Khouri, Chief Information Security Officer, and the entire UMass Boston ISO staff will not rest until the university’s data and information are safe, secure, and resilient.