How to ensure compatibility between security solutions and the new platform
Source Kaspersky Security Blog
Description
Sooner or later, every company faces the need to upgrade its infrastructure — whether to accommodate expansion, optimize processes, or keep up with the latest trends in IT. When such a decision is made, company management typically thinks first and foremost about broad changes at the platform level — assuming that applications can simply be reinstalled and everything will work as before. And to a certain extent, that’s actually true. In an era when corporate security could be ensured solely by antivirus software on workstations, that would have worked; however, modern cyberthreats require protection at a fundamentally different level. In this post, we explore why platform migration should be discussed with the security team as well, and why simply “installing a program” isn’t enough to ensure modern-day protection. Security is no longer just a single program In the past, securing endpoints was enough to prevent most attacks. In today’s environment, endpoint protection is just one layer of cybersecurity. A modern extended detection and response (XDR) solution isn’t a single application installed on a computer; it’s a set of components that work in conjunction. They provide protection for workstations and servers, event logging and storing, infrastructure-level threat detection mechanisms, investigation tools, automated response, reporting, and asset management. Each component serves a specific purpose and places different demands on the hardware and platform. For the event storage system , disk speed is the most critical factor. In a large company, the security system generates millions of records per day, and all of them must be written quickly and then retrieved just as quickly when needed. The bottleneck here usually isn’t processor capabilities, but rather how fast the system can read and write data. Threat detection requires computing power. The system compares events in real time and determines what can be a sign of an attack, and what is normal operational activity. Response time is critical for investigation tools . When an analyst investigates an incident and pieces together what happened, they work in real time, and every second of waiting adds to the overall response time to the attack. What does this mean? When a company switches platforms, it’s not enough to simply verify that the company’s existing cybersecurity solutions support the new architecture. The answer “yes, it’s supported” is too vague. It’s essential to clearly understand exactly which parts of the cybersecurity architecture are supported — starting from which version, and what is still under development. What to ask before it’s too late To avoid unexpected complications during implementation and operation, we recommend asking the right questions in advance — during the planning phase. Here are those questions: Which specific components have been tested on the new platform? The question shouldn’t be phrased as “Is the platform supported?”; the compatibility of each part of the system should be verified. Different components of a modern information-security solution operate under different rules, which is why their compatibility is tested separately. A one-word “yes” answer should raise a red flag: a reputable vendor will always provide a detailed response — including a list of components and any caveats (where applicable). Will there be sufficient resources to handle the company’s workload? “It will run” and “it will handle needed data volume” are two fundamentally different statements. The former is verified in a lab on a test bench; the latter depends on how many events specific infrastructure generates per day, and how long the company is required to retain them under regulatory or internal policies. It makes sense to ask the vendor for recommendations on calculating resources based on specific data volumes rather than relying on general minimum resource requirements when planning. Is the security solution up to date? It’s always important to clearl…