Working together to protect against modern cyber dangers

Working together to protect against modern cyber dangers

Infosys

How Microsoft and Infosys are collaborating to safeguard enterprises against rapidly evolving digital threats as they move towards remote and hybrid working models

Guest contributor |


The remote and hybrid working models, while firmly establishing their effectiveness during the pandemic, have introduced a new and increasingly sophisticated set of security complications for organisations. 

With the use of multiple devices to access the corporate network from anywhere, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications to accomplish tasks, safeguarding identities, devices, data and applications across multi-cloud platforms has become critical, albeit incredibly challenging. The proliferation of internet of things (IoT) devices, diverse security products used within an organisation, hybrid and multi-cloud environments have added to the woes. 

Securing the customer’s digital estate with increased efficiency and effectiveness has been made possible by combining Microsoft Sentinel, which is Microsoft’s cloud-native security information and event management (SIEM), and Microsoft Defender, which is the extended detection and response (XDR) solution. Defender provides an integrated, automated extended detection and response to protect the end users and secure the IT infrastructure while Sentinel brings a centralised SIEM solution, which can enhance the ability to monitor, identify and respond to attacks. 

Infosys’s inbuilt managed security solution, Infosys Cyber Next, is a platform-based offering, powered by Sentinel, which offers a comprehensive cybersecurity solution to enterprises that would otherwise need to invest in dozens of disparate security technologies and specialised expertise to achieve rapid security maturity. The solution offers security-as-a-service in a single bundle that comprises pre-selected and pre-integrated ready-to-use security technologies that are homegrown or from our partners. 

The breadth of Infosys’ experience and service-based offerings is bolstered by a strong Microsoft portfolio that has been instrumental in helping enterprises effectively profile risks, prioritise and manage threats. Enterprises have been able to achieve success by leveraging Infosys' offerings.  

Zero trust enablement 

A paradigm shift in cybersecurity, towards solutions that follow the principles of ‘zero trust’ – an approach to protect against cybercrime – is imperative in this era of next-generation cyber threats to ensure the success of hybrid and remote work model. This would enforce movement from assumption to explicit verification; adoption of a policy-based, least-privileged access model; and designing with the principle that every element of a system can be breached. 

A zero-trust security framework should start with securing the people and the devices that they use to get work done. Both are increasingly important as we navigate a hybrid work world where employees are expected to be productive agnostic of device, location, and time. 

Infosys has been helping its customers build a new security model that more effectively adapts to the complexity of the modern environment, embraces the hybrid workplace, and protects people, devices, apps, and data wherever they are located by leveraging Infosys SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) and Microsoft products like Defender and Sentinel. Infosys SASE delivers end-to-end zero-trust security, minimises threat posture and maximises the user experience. 

Industrial devices enablement 

In industrial environments that have grown inorganically, it is common for manufacturing plants to have their own specialised operational technology (OT) equipment from diverse vendors. This poses a huge challenge to the IT security team as they will not have a single-pane view of all information about local IoT/OT assets, vulnerabilities, and potential threats. Defender for IoT, combined with Sentinel, provides a network layer security monitoring and visibility across various IoT and OT devices. The solution also provides an enterprise-wide view of the assets, vulnerabilities and threat alerts across all plants. 

Secure multi-cloud estate 

Infosys has designed a solution for securing and protecting organisations using multi-cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure. From the lens of security, Microsoft Defender for Cloud provides a single-pane view into customers’ multi-cloud environment, and captures all the logs and signals from the platforms. Sentinel then analyses the logs and signals, enabling the company’s security analysts to review and respond to potential threats quickly and proactively. 

Improved productivity 

The move to Defender and Sentinel has facilitated bringing new talent onto the security and operations team. The consolidated interface and visualisations make it easier for analysts to perform attack analysis and close tickets, thus making life easier and more productive for its workers and setting a new standard for compliance that enhances the digital workplace for everyone. 

Consolidated tool set 

Infosys has helped many of its customers to simplify their IT security landscape by consolidating multiple security vendors supplying overlapping functionality with leading-edge, cloud-managed security and compliance features of Defender and Sentinel. This had resulted in reduction in cost and simplifying the security management, easier talent onboarding and vendor and license management. 

Infosys service offerings combined with the Microsoft security portfolio can be a formidable force that enterprises need today to safeguard themselves against the rapidly evolving sophisticated threat landscape.  

Bineesh Babukuttan is a principal technology architect, Microsoft Practice, at Infosys 

This article was originally published in the Spring 2023 issue of Technology Record. To get future issues delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for a free subscription

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