The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines cyber resilience as, “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.” NIST goes on to declare that cyber resiliency intends, “to enable mission or business objectives that depend on cyber resources to be achieved in a contested cyber environment.”
In other words, cyber resilient organizations may continue to conduct business effectively in the face of cyberthreats. But to achieve this, MSPs must help them be proactive in their approach to cybersecurity.
When developed as a holistic framework, cyber resilience is the foundation of a sound security strategy. It combines people, process, and technology to protect an organization in its entirety.
Jason Proctor, Dell Technologies
“Cyber resilience is not a feature, it’s an architecture,” says Jason Proctor, an advisory systems engineer working in the Global Technology Office at Dell Technologies. “It’s not just about the technology. It’s operational.”
Zero Trust is Dell Technologies’ “Security North Star” that guides the development of cyber resilient solutions. Working with over 30 leading technology and security companies—such as Intel, NVIDIA, Palo Alto Networks, and VMware—Dell applies the seven pillars of Zero Trust (as defined by the U.S. Department of Defense’s reference architecture) throughout its product and service offerings:
- Continuous authentication
- Comply to connect, device detection, and compliance
- Continuous monitoring and ongoing authorization
- Data encryption and rights management
- Software-defined networking
- Policy decision point and policy orchestration
- Threat intelligence
Incorporating these principles, Dell’s proactive, holistic approach to cyber resilience has resulted in several key solutions designed to address the modern, increasingly distributed IT environment. With hybrid and remote work models in mind, the company offers:
Dell Trusted Workplace assists in securing endpoints across an organization, whether on premises or off. Its comprehensive, defensive framework includes built-on security solutions such as Dell Safeguard and Response, powered by CrowdStrike Falcon, VMware Carbon Black, and Secureworks. This AI and machine learning-driven technology proactively detects and blocks endpoint attacks, and guides security experts as they track, identify, and resolve threats across endpoints, the network, and the cloud. A built-in and built-with security architecture provides firmware and hardware protections for Dell commercial PCs, delivering real-time visibility into potential attacks at the device level.
Dell Trusted Infrastructure is a suite of scalable, secure automated workflows and software-defined solutions designed to protect critical systems, applications, and data across the distributed IT environment. One of the main components of Dell Trusted Infrastructure is Dell CloudIQ, a cloud-based AIOps application that provides proactive resilience through monitoring, machine learning, and predictive analytics to streamline security operations both on premises and in the cloud.
Dell PowerProtect DD, also integrated with Dell CloudIQ, allows for the protection, management, and recovery of data at scale. It comprises a wide range of capabilities such as immutability, dual role authorization, end-to-end encryption, multifactor authentication, and tamper controls. Its data invulnerability architecture continually verifies that data written is data stored—a self-healing design intended to maintain data integrity.
For MSPs that offer cybersecurity solutions and services, Proctor encourages a consultative sales approach. While it’s necessary to understand the feature sets of individual systems, gaining an understanding of the customer’s needs and risk appetite is critical. Only then can they work with their clients to deliver true cyber resilience.
“Once you understand the level of risk that the business is willing to accept— and the risk level they want to mitigate—then you can align the technology,” Proctor says. “MSPs need to understand their customer’s environment to be able to propose an actual solution versus just another product offering. This is how they can help their customers be more cyber resilient, and how they can develop a reputation for being a solid security provider.”
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