Organizations around the world are seeing a rise in cyberattacks. Just ask JPMorgan Chase & Co., the largest commercial bank in the U.S. Their Asset & Wealth Management CEO, Mary Erodes, recently reported the company wards off 45 billion cyberattacks per day.
File transfers have become a prime target for these kinds of attacks. Ransomware groups like CL0P (or TA505) have exploited vulnerabilities in file transfer — with a level of speed and ease we haven’t seen in the past.
With these new threats, managing the data flows for file transfers is now more of a challenge. Many organizations are wondering how to combat this crisis and support secure MFT. Gathering some of our experts together for a roundtable discussion, we were able to offer helpful insights.
Here, Chief Product Officer Vince Padua describes just how easy it can be to underestimate the risk to your enterprise.
▶ Watch the full webinar on demand for crucial steps to safeguarding your customers.
Software updates are critical but can sometimes be met with resistance
Think about MFT security in the same context as an insurance policy. When there’s an update to your insurance coverage, you can’t ignore it. Otherwise, you could unknowingly have coverage gaps. Overlooking an update to your MFT software leaves security gaps and more vulnerabilities.
Secure MFT requires keeping software up to date. Yet, many businesses skip this step — sometimes because of oversight, but more often out of reluctance.
This reluctance stems from a fear of breaking business processes. It’s the idea that ‘if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.’ Businesses maintain the status quo to avoid glitches, compatibility issues, or downtime.
While it’s a valid concern, what was secure yesterday may not be secure today. Cyber threats are rapidly evolving. Not using the latest software versions leaves your digital doors unlocked.
Thankfully, we’ve seen a growing awareness of security risks in the last few years. Sandy Blackwell, Global Director of Software Security at Axway, notes that enterprises are demanding more from their MFT software vendors.
Comprehensive training and policies support a more secure framework
It’s an unfortunate reality: people tend to be the weakest security link. Sometimes it’s a matter of using weak passwords. Other times, users can share sensitive information without knowing it — including through phishing attacks.
Beyond technical MFT security aspects, there’s the need to prioritize training and strong posture management policies.
- Clearly outline password policies and multi-factor authentication standards.
- Make sure employees can detect phishing-style attacks via email.
- Ensure a basic understanding of access controls and data handling.
- Regularly review these processes and test them.
Encryption also fits into this conversation. Data should be encrypted in transit and at rest. It’s one of the minimal standards to support people in transferring files securely.
Furthermore, it is essential to ensure you are leveraging the latest cyphers for both you and your ecosystem of partners and endpoints. Implement or reenforce strong policies to ensure your ecosystem meets your security standards.
Automation & centralized identity management further secure MFT
When it comes to MFT security, you’re only as strong as your weakest link. So where there’s an opportunity to reduce human error, take advantage of it.
By leveraging automation, you can create a more resilient MFT infrastructure. This offers more agility by design. As new threats and vulnerabilities emerge, you can quickly adjust security measures to keep your file transfers secure.
Of course, to keep an eye on potential issues, you need infrastructure visibility. Monitoring activity across the ecosystem helps you be more proactive in patching critical vulnerabilities while supporting data breach resilience.
Then, there’s centralized identity management. With this approach, IT administrators can delegate responsibilities based on the least privilege model. So while tightening controls on how people engage with MFT, the business can still access all necessary capabilities.
See also MFT Security: Trust Nothing. Verify Always.
APIs bring uniformity to secure file transfer management
Will APIs replace MFT? It’s a question we’ve fielded before and one with a clear answer: No. APIs and MFT will complement one another.
We can see this sentiment play out through the use of APIs as part of a secure MFT infrastructure. You can use APIs to enable self-service for business functions, from onboarding to data flow management.
While enhancing the usability of your infrastructure, this type of automation allows for tailored experiences without bypassing any security gates. With this approach, you drastically reduce risk and promote standardization for file integration. As processes become repeatable, productivity improves.
Working with Axway to support secure MFT
It has always been a lot of work to maintain MFT infrastructures. But as your business grows and the risk of data breaches increases, it becomes an even tougher job. At Axway, we take that burden off your shoulders.
We have over 20 years of experience in the MFT business. While leveraging this experience, we continue to educate ourselves and look for opportunities to raise the bar in our security posture.
It’s why companies like Textron, a multi-industry company with a global network of aerospace, defense and intelligence, industrial, and financial businesses, rely on our managed cloud MFT solutions.
With Axway as a trusted partner, they’ve been able to spend less time on management and maintenance tasks and more time supporting their business.
“We no longer need to spend our days and nights remediating vulnerabilities and firefighting technical issues,” explains Al Gutierrez, IT Senior Architect at Textron.
“With the Axway Cloud, we can focus on delivering value-added services to the business.”
Read the full Textron case study here.
Axway MFT offers watertight security while helping you save costs and secure the most demanding SLAs. Let us help you modernize your on-premises legacy or homegrown MFT solution now and satisfy your strategic corporate objectives for more growth and innovation.