Just over three weeks ago, it was reported that Microsoft pointed to a server misconfiguration that ultimately led to a potential data leak for some of its current and/or perspective customers. The company said a security lapse left an endpoint publicly accessible over the internet via zero authentication.
A statement on the incident indicated it was “caused by an unintentional misconfiguration on an endpoint that is not in use across the company’s ecosystem and was not the result of a security vulnerability."
In the end, despite the perhaps diminished impact of this specific leak, one could easily label this data leak a very basic example of the problem companies now face surrounding exposed assets. The lack of authentication and authorization is part of what makes the assets exposed, and because of that exposure, potentially disruptive and costly data leaks take place.
Through the deployment of comprehensive ITDR systems, it would be immediately (or nearly immediately) noticed that people from outside of the approved organization(s) were gaining access to these important but exposed assets. Therefore, by keeping consistent tabs on all identities through ITDR, these types of basic yet potentially troublesome leaks can be avoided far more often than not.
The full value of ITDR goes far beyond looking at the actual identity-based protections within an organization. That’s just one element of ITDR. Organizations must also ensure they are looking at the ACTIVITY of all identities and their locations to enable immediate alerts and remediation according to customizable actions – all in real-time. It’s this immediate ability to become aware of exposed assets so quickly that increases the chances of halting unauthorized personnel from snatching it up in the first place.
To learn more about exposed assets, the variety of types of exposed assets, and real-time remediation, contact AuthMind’s experts today.
