Machine Identity Lies at the Core of Cybersecurity

In today’s world, attaining simplicity is the most difficult job. With each passing day, our lives are becoming more complex. Most of our experiences like shopping, working, reading, etc. are getting digitalized. Digital devices are becoming a part of our extended reality and it is hard to imagine our lives without them.

We are no longer isolated within our communities, cities or nations. The boom of internet has turned the whole world into a digitally connected family. And whenever the family gets bigger, more complexity looms into the relationships. Privacy becomes a crucial factor to ensure smooth functioning. 

While loss of privacy, like leakage of gossips, was a minor issue in old times, the consequences can be disastrous in a modern digitally connected world. Businesses can shut down overnight, their owners can be put behind bars and companies could suffer huge penalties if they failed to protect their data, mostly their customers’ data.

The biggest change we can witness in the digital world is that information has become a precious asset. In the physical world, it was never a problem because the communication used to happen directly between speaker and listener. But now it travels through digital means all across the globe and that makes it prone to breaches.

By 2025, it’s estimated that 463 exabytes of data will be created each day globally – that’s the equivalent of more than 200 million DVDs per day!

The amount of data exchange in one minute over internet in 2021 is shown in the below image.

So, with so much information traveling all across the world every minute, every second, who is responsible to ensure its security?

This is where Cybersecurity comes into picture.

Cybersecurity in a Nutshell

Cybersecurity is an umbrella term for the process of protecting computer systems and networks from information disclosure, theft or damage of devices and disruption in services. With the rapid adoption of smart devices, internet and wireless network, the field is becoming increasingly relevant to create a safe and secure ecosystem.

Most of the financial institutions are quite prone to cyberattacks and hence need a high level of security. The complex systems and the data they deal with must be kept confidential and there is a high demand of securing the network and information exchange.

Any external threat must be caught right on the spot and denied permission to communicate with the network’s devices. For this reason, machines must have their own identities so that they can be authenticated to communicate within the network.

Without machine identity, cybersecurity is a hoax.

A bit on Machine Identity

With the advent of internet, the definition of machine has evolved. It is no longer just a computer device but everything that is included in a network like servers, mobile devices, applications, cloud instances, container, APIs and smart algorithms.

A simple transaction of connecting to your bank’s server to transfer funds online requires hundreds of machines to operate and complete the transaction. Each of these machines need to be authenticated every time they connect to the network.

We are quite aware of human identities being authenticated online through user-id and password. But for machines it is a bit different. Instead of user-id/password they have digital certificates. The most common type of digital certificate is the TLS/SSL certificate. 

The lock icon you see on the website is an icon of TLS certificate but there are thousands of machine identities being used behind that. A Global 500 organization uses millions of certificates in its network perimeter and with rapid adoption of cloud, these numbers are growing exponentially.

Machine Identity Management: An Evolving Need

With the rise in number of machines and complexity of operations involved with managing their identities, companies can no longer rely on manual operations. Security norms are getting stricter everyday thereby reducing the lifespan of digital certificates. Mismanagement of digital certificates can lead to disruption in services or data breach which is a big dent on company’s reputation.

Furthermore, with a rapid adoption of cloud, companies are working on a distributed network spread across all over the globe. Companies’ dependencies on data exchange from data centers all across the globe makes it vulnerable to cyberattacks. They can no longer function without having a robust security solution in place. Just a split second of certificate expiry could leave a gap for hackers to intrude your network. Leaving their security on chance is not something a global company handling millions of customer’s sensitive data can afford.

Hence, an automated Machine Identity Management service is must for any company that is having a global outreach. It takes care of entire lifecycle of digital certificates and ensures a ceaseless and secure operations of a network..

To know more on how AppViewX can help you with this, talk to our experts.

The post Machine Identity Lies at the Core of Cybersecurity appeared first on AppViewX.

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Blogs – AppViewX authored by Shoeb Ahmed. Read the original post at: https://www.appviewx.com/blogs/machine-identity-lies-at-the-core-of-cybersecurity/